New York’s positivity rate for COVID-19 continues to remain under 1% but the head of New York City’s public hospital system warned Wednesday of renewed lockdowns and business closures if preventive measures, such as wearing masks and ending large, indoor gatherings are not taken in communities with high rates of infection.
State officials said 70,930 coronavirus tests were reported Tuesday, with 665, or 0.94%, coming back positive. Statewide, hospitalizations grew by 20 to 490 while intensive care patients ticked up by 8 to 141.
There were five deaths from the virus, all in the five boroughs or Westchester County, bringing the state’s total to 25,437, officials said.
“New York’s most powerful tools in the fight against COVID-19 are the actions each of us take to slow the spread,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. “When you wear a mask, socially distance and wash your hands, you’re protecting other New Yorkers, not just yourself. Local governments have critical roles to play enforcing state guidance and I urge them to keep doing so.”
Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and chief executive of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal health system in the nation, said Wednesday that neighborhoods such as Midwood, Borough Park, Williamsburg, as well as Edgemere-Far Rockaway, Kew Gardens and Bensonhurst, accounted for 20% of all city cases as of Sept. 19.
“In the absence of our doing the right thing, we will need to be in a lockdown-type situation,” Katz said at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daily news conference.
Katz, who said the spike in these neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations, has been particularly pronounced this week, added: “We don’t want to again have to close down businesses. We don’t want to have to have more restrictions. There are easier ways for us to go on with our lives.”
Two yeshivas have been ordered closed by the city Health Department over coronavirus concerns, including one with 2,000 students in the Rockaways — and more could be closed if necessary, de Blasio said.
“We’re obviously going to do whatever it takes,” he said.
Earlier this month, 138 Jewish doctors in Nassau’s Five Towns community raised concerns over an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the Orthodox community and a relaxing of precautions to combat the virus. Many of the new infection clusters have arisen from large gatherings, such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvah and concerts, the doctors wrote.
“COVID-19 remains a clear and present danger,” the doctors wrote in an open letter to the community. “After a quiet summer, cases are now on the rise, specifically in our community. COVID-19 is not a political issue, nor is it old news. If our goal is to keep shuls and schools open and our neighborhood stores in business, we need to recognize that the uptick demands that we take it seriously…
Read More: While state virus cases stay low, New York City has concerns about compliance