Astoria, LIC COVID Rates: Where Things Stand As New Variants Emerge

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The coronavirus may not be the biggest discussion topic in the city these days, but it's certainly front of mind for the hundreds of Western Queens residents now infected with COVID-19.

During the week that ended on Tuesday, a combined 246 residents of Astoria and Long Island City tested positive for COVID-19, according to the city — a positivity rate of 11.7 percent.

While the data shows no significant changes to the neighborhoods' positivity rates in recent weeks, health authorities have long expected the virus to surge again during the fall and winter.

And a pair of new, contagious variants — BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 — are on the rise, accounting for a combined 28 percent of new cases in the region that includes New York as of Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This week's positivity rates in Astoria and Long Island City remain much lower than they were earlier this summer, when the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant of omicron was on the rise in New York, and across the U.S.

Thanks in part to widespread vaccination, cases in the neighborhood are less severe than during the early stages of the pandemic: 54 Astoria and Long Island City residents had been hospitalized with COVID-19 during a 28-day period through Oct. 7, but no deaths were recorded in that span.

Through mid-October, about 93 percent of Astoria and Long Island City residents had been fully vaccinated, city data shows.

As the coming of winter promises a likely surge in COVID-19, city Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan is urging people — including children as young as five — to get the latest virus booster shot, which more than 375,000 New Yorkers have already received.

"If you want to celebrate with your family, do so with peace of mind," Vasan said this week, according to PIX11. Vasan noted that people can get the COVID booster and flu vaccine at the same time.