De Blasio: NYC's 'growth' in COVID-19 cases 'raises real concern'
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Thursday that data showing a growing number of COVID cases in the city "raises real concern" and that the city would break up parties this Halloween.
"We have to double down," de Blasio said while announcing the new numbers at his daily briefing. "We cannot let a second wave happen here."
The mayor said he was "increasingly concerned" about the percentage of people testing positive citywide for COVID. The city's threshold is 5% and Thursday's number was 2.70%.
De Blasio said it was a "worrisome number," though he admitted it varies from day to day and is "not a perfect measure."
"But that's a very worrisome number," the mayor said. "It's literally twice yesterday."
De Blasio said the percentage of positive tests citywide on a seven-day average—1.92%—was also concerning. The number was 1.66% on Tuesday.
"I said yesterday we've been hovering in the neighborhood of 1.5% to 1.75% over the last couple of weeks," he said. "This is the first time that number has taken a meaningful jump to 1.92%"
"That alone is not a number that would overwhelm us, but the growth is what worries me, and we cannot allow that number to keep growing," de Blasio said.
The mayor said the number of new reported cases on a seven-day average was also worrying him. The number was 532 cases Thursday, just shy of the city's threshold of 550 cases.
"There's stability there, but at too high a level," the mayor said.
Heading into a Halloween weekend, de Blasio said New Yorkers should avoid large gatherings and that the city would crack down on parties.
"If people want to trick-or-treat outdoors, small groups with masks on, that's great. Big gatherings, parties, that's not great at all. If we find out about them, we're going to have to break them up, because it's dangerous. We gotta buckle down," he said.
De Blasio also urged people to avoid traveling for the holidays "unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Unfortunately, pretty much everywhere else is doing worse at fighting the coronavirus, and if you go someplace else the chance of you bringing it back with you is high," he said.
