NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Herd immunity hasn't played a major role in New York City's success at keeping coronavirus cases down, Mayor Bill de Blasio and his senior health adviser said at a briefing Friday.
Cases in the city have been on the decline this summer even as the five boroughs prepare to enter Phase 4 of reopening—and as cases rise in many U.S. states.
Asked why the city hasn't seen a measurable uptick, de Blasio and Dr. Jay Varma said efforts taken by everyday New Yorkers were largely responsible, not herd immunity.
"I think that immunity is a very unlikely explanation for this, because we know that the vast majority of New Yorkers actually weren't infected," Varma said. "So we're not nearly at a level where we would expect that immunity would play a major role in decreasing transmission. There are still far too many New Yorkers who are susceptible."
Varma said the most likely explanation for the city's current success is a combination of "defensive strategies," such as social distancing, face coverings and good hygiene, as well as "offensive strategies" like testing and contact tracing.
De Blasio said up to 40,000 people are now being tested in the city every day. He said testing, tracing and the actions of New Yorkers have slowed the virus and kept it at bay.
"New Yorkers learned powerful lessons and then they really owned those lessons—in terms of wearing face coverings, in terms of social distancing," the mayor said. "We have to look at how much discipline and focus there has been, how much unity there has been in New York City, which we did not see in the other parts of the country that have had the problems."
De Blasio called Friday's daily COVID-19 report another "very good one."
The mayor said 62 people were admitted to city hospitals with suspected COVID-19 on Wednesday, the latest day data is available for. That's well below the city's threshold of 200 people.
The number of patients in ICUs with suspected COVID-19 was 293, also below the threshold of 375.
And the percentage of people tested citywide who were positive for the coronavirus was 2 percent, below the threshold of 15 percent.
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