NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that health officials were increasing outreach in a Brooklyn neighborhood amid an uptick in cases, some of them linked to a "large" wedding.
De Blasio announced at his Wednesday briefing that the city is monitoring a recent uptick in Borough Park, "particularly a group of 16 cases that came out recently." He said the uptick was seen in the past few days and is an "early warning sign."
"Some of these 16 cases are linked to a recent wedding, a large wedding in fact, in the community," de Blasio said. "So we are working immediately to galvanize community leaders to work with the Test and Trace Corps."
De Blasio said the city is working to "get the message out" to the neighborhood that people need to get tested, wear face coverings and avoid large gatherings."
The mayor said last week that the Health Department had discovered an uptick in cases in Sunset Park and increased outreach in response. The outreach included knocking on over 9,000 doors, making live calls and robocalls and handing out PPE and flyers.
The mayor gave an update on the cases in Sunset Park Wednesday.
"What we know so far, thank God—limited community spread and not a cluster situation in Sunset Park," de Blasio said.
"Overall, New York City is doing so well," the mayor added. "And you'll hear today's indicators, they're pretty extraordinary. But we've got to stay vigilant."
When it comes to the city's three daily indicators, de Blasio said he had some "extraordinary" news—the percentage of people tested who were positive for the virus dropped to its lowest level since the pandemic began.
The mayor said 0.24 percent of people tested were positive for the virus, well below the new threshold of 5 percent (the threshold used to be 15 percent).
"The number I'm showing you here today is the lowest number we have had since this crisis began," de Blasio said. "This is the lowest infection rate in New York City since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. Today's number—0.24 percent. This is extraordinary."
"Now we all know every day can vary. We all know there's no single perfect measure," the mayor added. "But the fact that with expanded testing and more and more outreach all the time, you now see a number as low as 0.24 percent for the New York City infection rate. This is striking."
De Blasio said the daily number of people admitted to city hospitals for suspected COVID-19 on Aug. 17 was 64 patients—below the 200-patient threshold. He said 8.7 percent of those patients were positive for COVID-19.
As for the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases, the mayor said there was an average of 320 cases, below the threshold of 550 cases, for the seven days leading up to Aug. 17.
