Virus uptick in Hasidic NYC neighborhoods causes concern
A spike in COVID-19 cases in a handful of Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations is raising alarm bells even as New York City’s overall infection rate remains low, city officials said Wednesday.
The neighborhoods, including Borough Park and Williamsburg, accounted for 20 percent of the city’s COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, according to city Health Department numbers.
“We have a lot to do because we’re seeing a serious uptick in multiple neighborhoods simultaneously,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his daily coronavirus briefing. “And it’s something we have to address with a very aggressive public health effort right away.”