By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
On Monday, New York City officials warned that Staten Island’s unvaccinated residents were at risk in what is being called an uptick of COVID-19 cases in connection with the highly contagious Delta variant. “The spread of the Delta variant means it is perhaps the most dangerous time to be unvaccinated, and that’s why we have ensured that our vaccination efforts are proceeding with as much urgency as possible,” said Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, at a virtual press briefing with Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We’re seeing, for example, in Staten Island the percent positivity and the case numbers have increased in recent days and weeks, and that’s because we have unvaccinated individuals, particularly younger people, who remain unvaccinated,” continued Chokshi, the City’s top doctor.
Mayor de Blasio’s senior adviser for public health, Dr. Jay Varma, also chimed in, adding that NYC residents who aren’t vaccinated are now at “very high risk” of contracting COVID-19. “This new strain of the virus is particularly contagious, and so for that percentage of the population that is unvaccinated, they are at very high risk of getting infected and potentially having these very serious complications,” Varma said at the briefing.
As reported by the NY Post, on Monday data released from City Hall showed a 1.27 percent COVID-19 positivity rate in NYC. That is a significant uptick from Friday, when the NYC positivity rate for COVID was 0.85 percent for the latest seven-day average. On Friday, Staten Island had a 1.41 percent positive rate, making it the only borough to have a positivity rate above 1 percent, as per state data.
Chokshi urged New Yorkers to get vaccinated. “We have to make sure people are as protected as possible in the next few weeks,” he pleaded. Still, Mayor de Blasio noted that though the positivity rate had increased in comparison to the past few months, hospitalizations are still low. “What we’re seeing is some greater numbers of cases and positivity, but we’re also seeing what we care about the most, thank God, hospitalizations staying very low and people not being put in danger as a result,” de Blaiso said.
Nevertheless, the delta variant is worrisome because of its highly contagious nature as well as its higher resistance to existing vaccines. In Israel, researchers found that the Pfizer vaccine has been less effective at protecting against the Delta variant of the Coronavirus there. Still, the immunization has been proven successful at helping lessen the severity of the illness for vaccinated people and avert serious illness and death, as per real-world data.
