By: Fern Sidman
As the dreaded coronavirus continues to spread unabated throughout the country, it has been reported that despite the fact that New York State took stringent measures to prevent the rate of virus infections from climbing, the number of Covid cases is now on the rise in two areas of Staten Island. This information was offered by New York City Health Department officials.
On Thursday, NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio said that the increase in positive cases is affecting the ZIP codes 10305 and 10314. It is there that more than three percent of those being tested are coming back with positive results.
According to a report on thepatch.com web site, a new rapid testing site will open November 12th at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island in addition to 10 other testing sites across the borough. The report also indicated that the city will be actively involved in helping to keep the infection rate down by sending out 70 additional contact tracers and dozens of volunteers to distribute masks and encourage residents to get tested. Protective gear for workers and volunteers will be distributed through Empire Outlets who has also established a partnership with the city.
Officials representing the health department believe that the escalation in Covid cases does not warrant the imposition of new restrictions. They also vocalized the belief that if people cooperate then they could get the situation under control in an expedited manner.
On Thursday, Dr. Ted Long, the leader of the city’s Test & Trace Corps told reporters: “We never want to see an uptick in any community, but, in this case — in your case — we’ve caught it early.”
According to health officials, there were no specific super spreader events that caused the upsurge in positive cases, but rather people behaving with their guard down now that things have become more lax.
“We know it’s been a very long road,” de Blasio said. “We constantly have to remind people how important it is to do the basics.”
According to leaders of the Orthodox Jewish community in Flatbush where the area was placed in the “red zone” because of the unusually high rate of Covid infections, they are exhorting residents in the Midwood, Flatbush and Gravesend neighborhoods to scrupulously adhere to health department guidelines in order to get the infection rate down so that the “red zone” status can be removed.
They are also urging people to get tested as often as possible and they have listed testing sites throughout the Flatbush area on their web site.
According to Twitter post, Governor Cuomo has said that the cluster of cases in the Far Rockaway area is now “extinguished and restrictions will be eased.
Also shrinking other red zone areas required strong restrictions on mass gatherings, houses of worship, schools is being reduced in size but not eliminated, according to the Tweet.
