Slight jump in COVID-19 cases in Borough Park linked to large wedding
Photo by Christopher Macsurak on Wikimedia
City health officials this week discovered an uptick in coronavirus cases in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday said 16 new cases were found in the last week, with some linked to a large wedding that recently took place in the community. The mayor said the city will work with local leaders and organizations to spread the word about testing and social distancing and distribute masks at houses of worship.
Last week, the city announced they had found more than 220 cases of COVID-19 over a period of two weeks in Sunset Park. In response, the Test and Trace Corps ramped up its efforts by calling every household, knocking on all doors, and launching new testing sites.
NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi described the effort as a data-driven, hyperlocal response in order to “break the chain of transmission.”
The mayor on Wednesday said after the outreach efforts, the city was able to determine that there was limited community spread in Sunset Park and that most new cases came from people living together.
“We want to be always acting out of an abundance of caution,” de Blasio said during a press briefing on Wednesday. “We saw this in the Sunset Park situation. By assuming there might be a problem, getting in there fast with a lot of energy and a lot of personnel, it makes a lot of difference.”
In the early days of the pandemic, Borough Park, home to a large Orthodox Jewish community, saw a cluster of positive coronavirus cases. New data released this week showed the neighborhood has been among the hardest hit by COVID-19, with 46.8 percent of residents testing positive for the antibodies, the second-highest rate in the city.
Overall, the city on Wednesday saw its lowest positive infection rate recorded since the start of the pandemic, at 0.24 percent positive, according to de Blasio. Statewide, New York also saw its 12th consecutive day with a positivity rate below 1 percent.
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