MELROSE, MA — Less than 1 percent of the more than 1,500 tested over two days at a drive-thru testing site here were positive for the coronavirus.

Health Director Ruth Clay said Sunday night that 1,527 people were tested Friday and Saturday in the high school parking lot. Thirteen of those tests came back positive, with one being from out of town.

The testing was set up by Mayor Paul Brodeur after an increase in COVID-19 cases in the city. The drive-thru testing site proved so popular Friday — many people reported waiting up to three hours to be tested — that Brodeur secured an extension for Saturday.

There were 258 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Melrose as of Thursday afternoon, according to Clay. The additional 12 positive brings the updated total to at least 270. As of last Monday, there were 27 deaths related to COVID-19 in the city.

One percent isn't too bad, of course, but worse that 0%, and it's still 12 people who were walking around Melrose who probably didn't know that they were infected!