New York governor raises alarm about new virus hot spots
Steve Olsen, left, who owns the West Bank Cafe, and friend Karin Schall joined a group of restaurant owners and workers protesting outside the building that houses New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office on Monday. The group is calling for expanded outdoor dining and for indoor dining to be expanded from 25 to 50 percent occupancy. Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP
By Marina Villeneuve Associated Press
September 29, 2020
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised alarm Monday about the emergence of a handful of coronavirus hot spots in New York, saying just 10 ZIP codes represented more than a quarter of the state’s new infections in recent testing.
New York has reported just over 11,500 new COVID-19 infections over the past two weeks, according to state figures.
A disproportionate number of new cases have come from a handful of communities in New York City and its northern suburbs that are home to many Orthodox Jews, who on Monday were marking the high holiday of Yom Kippur.
Of the 834 new cases reported Sunday, 27 percent were in a group of 10 ZIP codes that included several Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens and in several Hasidic communities in Rockland County. An area north of Binghamton in New York’s Southern Tier also saw an unusual number of positive tests.
Health officials in the city and in Rockland and Orange counties have previously raised concerns about rising rates in Hasidic communities, which saw students at religious schools return to in-person learning in early September. Public schools in the city are rolling out in-person learning this week.
Cuomo declined to single out any particular group for the spike.
“Whatever the population, the answer’s going to be the same — it’s compliance,” Cuomo told reporters Monday afternoon.
He urged school leaders to put in requests now for rapid testing machines, which Cuomo said have a 15-minute turnaround for results. The governor said the state has 200 rapid testing machines available for those communities.
“The key with these clusters is to jump on them quickly, attack on all sides,” he said.
A group of restaurant owners and workers used a mock coffin as a prop while protesting outside the building that houses New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office on Monday. The group is calling for expanded outdoor dining and for indoor dining to be expanded from 25 to 50 percent occupancy. Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP
Cuomo also called on local government officials to better enforce COVID-19 restrictions in bars, restaurants and other gathering places.
New York City health officials have said they are considering re-imposing restrictions on gatherings in select city neighborhoods where the virus was spreading.
Cuomo acknowledged people are getting sick of wearing masks and staying 6 feet apart, but cautioned, “You’ll offend them even more deeply if you start doing close-downs, and that’s what’s going to happen.”
Statewide, about 1.5 percent of people who sought COVID-19 tests wound up testing positive in results reported Sunday. Cuomo warned though that in a handful of ZIP codes, that rate is now up over 20 percent.
Cuomo warned his administration could close schools in areas where too many people are testing positive for the virus.
Still, New York’s rate of new infections is far lower than many states: the state reported about four new cases per 100,000 New Yorkers over the past week. That seven-day average reached nearly 50 in April.
New York hospitals reported 543 COVID-19 patients as of Sunday, the most since Aug. 18 but only a fraction of the nearly 19,000 who were in the hospital at the pandemic’s April peak.
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