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Coronavirus Updates: These 14 NYC Zip Codes Are Now On Cuomo’s List Of COVID Hotspots

By

Elizabeth Kim

and

Karen Yi

Published Sep 30, 2020

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Students wait with parents before entering school for the first day of in-person learning.

 

JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

By

Elizabeth Kim

and

Karen Yi

Published Sep 30, 2020

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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Wednesday, September 30th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. A look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Here's the latest:

3:30 p.m. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday released an updated list of the top 20 ZIP codes in the state that have been identified as COVID-19 hotspots or "clusters," based on daily test positivity rates.

The 20 ZIP codes have a combined daily positivity rate of 5.5%, five times higher than the statewide positivity rate.

New York's daily positivity rate currently stands at 1.02%.

Fourteen of the cluster neighborhoods are located in New York City, and touch every single borough: seven in Brooklyn, two in the Bronx, two in Queens, two in Staten Island, and one in Manhattan.

Areas with spikes in coronavirus cases include Rockland and Orange counties as well as parts of South Brooklyn, which are home to large numbers of Orthodox residents. During a telephone press briefing, Cuomo said he had spoken with Orthodox Jewish leaders in the morning about the crisis. He said they agreed to help state health officials come up with an action plan to educate the community. The intervention comes as the Jewish community is set to begin commemorating Sukkot, a weeklong festival celebrating the fall harvest.

Noting the upcoming holiday, Cuomo said, "How do we make sure that we have a different sense of behavior?"

In a thinly-veiled attack on Mayor Bill de Blasio, the governor castigated local officials for failing to enforce face mask compliance as well as limits on religious gatherings.

"I understand the sensitivities of this political environment and no one wants to enforce a law because then you make the other person unhappy and nobody wants anyone unhappy," he said, before snapping, "You know what makes people really unhappy? Dying makes people really unhappy."

The governor threatened to create a state-led task force comprised of state troopers and members of the NYPD.

"If they don't want to enforce the law, I will enforce the law," he said. "And I will ticket people who don't wear masks, because that will save lives at this point."

The surge of cases in New York City has provoked a torrent of criticism from Cuomo. In an interview with NY1 on Tuesday, he raised the issue of NYPD officers not wearing masks in public, a question the mayor has been repeatedly asked at press conferences.

On Wednesday, de Blasio disputed the governor's characterization. He said the police commissioner had instructed all police officers to wear masks, adding, "And from my observation, going around the city, the vast majority [of NYPD officers] are, in fact, wearing masks."

Cuomo has also raised the issue of religious gatherings that defy the state's rules on social distancing.

On Friday, the city's Sheriff's Office shut down a nearly 300-person wedding in Queens. Earlier in the crisis, the NYPD have broken up gatherings at synagogues, but the city has also struggled at times with enforcing social distancing in the Orthodox community, most notably with funeral processions.

On Monday, the New York Post reported on large groups of maskless congregants outside of two Brooklyn synagogues. Under the state rule, only gatherings of 50 people are permitted outdoors.

"Are you telling me that the local officials didn’t see them?" Cuomo remarked, about religious gatherings in general. "Let’s be honest, they turned a blind eye."

New Jersey's Daily Positivity Rate Surges

2:30 p.m. New Jersey’s testing positivity rate rose to 3% for the first time since mid-July, officials said Wednesday. 

Prior to the latest report, the positivity rate had hovered around 2%.

The spike reflects the percent of positive tests for Sept. 26 but reflects a growing concern about the number of new cases largely coming out of Ocean County. Over the last 24 hours, the state recorded 722 new cases, with 188 reported in Ocean County. Of those, 134 cases were in Lakewood, home to a large Orthodox Jewish community. 

During his news briefing, Governor Phil Murphy alluded to the Orthodox community in Lakewood, referencing the High Holidays which ended Monday evening.

“This is the fastest-growing community of any size in our state and one of the fastest growing communities in the country of any size,” he said. “We’ve come through a period of religious holidays so that’s certainly something that’s on a list of considerations.”

Lakewood's school district is also one of 81 districts in the state that opted for full in-person instruction. The state Department of Health sent 20 additional contract tracers and testing kits to county officials to investigate what’s leading to the growth in cases.

Lakewood’s positivity rate is 27%; Ocean County’s is 5.44%. Monmouth and Middlesex counties also reported a high number of cases over the last week, which officials attribute to large gatherings. 

On Wednesday, New Jersey officials also rolled out a digital dashboard to track school outbreaks by county. So far, the state has identified 11 outbreaks in 11 schools with 43 positive cases. An outbreak is defined as two or more cases among students or staff that were linked to in-school transmission.  Of the more than 800 public school districts, charter schools, and private schools that accommodate special needs children from public schools, about half started the year with a mix of in-person and remote instruction. Another 10% are fully in-person.

After Sudden Spike, NYC's Daily Positivity Rate Falls Back Under 1%

New York City's daily testing positivity rate fell to .94%, after soaring to more than 3% the prior day, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

Prior to the spike, the citywide daily positivity rate had not been above 3% since June.

Health officials have been carefully monitoring about nine ZIP codes which have seen upticks in cases, which have contributed to the rise in the city's overall positivity rate. Three neighborhoods in South Brooklyn, Gravesend, Borough Park and Bensonhurst, have positivity rates over 6%.

The sudden rise in the coronavirus testing rate came on the same day that public schools reopened for in-person learning for K-5 and K-8 grades. De Blasio has said that he would close schools if the rolling seven-day average positivity rate hits 3%.

The seven-day average positivity rate, which experts say is a more reliable indicator, now stands at 1.46%, up from around 1.2% during the prior week. Hospital admissions for those with coronavirus symptoms, which are considered another key indicator, have also been rising, although the share of patients actually testing positive for COVID-19 fell from 17% on Sunday to 9% on Monday, when new data was released.

Health officials have been ramping up their prevention outreach as well as testing, aimed especially at the Orthodox community that reside in many of the new hotspots. All told, an estimated 1,000 city employees, including 400 police officers, have been performing outreach in the targeted ZIP codes.

More than 350 city employees have been distributing masks and information about coronavirus, according to Mitchell Katz, the head of the city's public hospital network. He added that health officials are converting streets and sidewalks into impromptu testing sites and had deployed 38 rapid testing machines.

Unlike some rapid testing machines, Katz said, that the ones used by the city were not prone to false negatives.

On Wednesday, the mayor, who has refrained from specifically referring to Orthodox Jewish communities when discussing the coronavirus clusters, said he had many conversations with "community leaders." He did call attention to an op-ed urging the wearing of masks that was written by Jewish elected officials, including two City Councilmembers, and published in Hamodia, a newspaper for Orthodox Jews. "The positivity rates in our community are higher than in most of New York City. This is an undebatable, scientific fact," the authors wrote.

On Wednesday, de Blasio urged all New Yorkers to get tested.

"This is how we fight back," he said.

Tagged

COVID-19

covid-19 updates

coronavirus

Elizabeth Kim

Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]

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Karen Yi

Twitter

Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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