Bed-Stuy COVID Rates Reach All-Time Highs, Data Shows

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Weeks into the city's latest COVID-19 surge, virus rates remain higher than ever in Bed-Stuy, where more than one in five people tested positive last week, according to the latest city data.

In the five ZIP codes that span the neighborhood, just under 6,000 people tested positive during the seven-day period that ended on Dec. 27: a positivity rate of 22 percent.

That is far higher than any positivity rate on record for both neighborhoods. During the citywide virus surge this past January, for example, the highest positivity rate in those same ZIP codes only reached 10.69 percent. (The city has not released ZIP code data for the initial outbreak in early 2020, when testing was limited.)

The most recent rates are also a far cry from where they were just a few weeks ago, when the latest surge began. Back then, positivity rates in the ZIP codes rose only as high as 3.48 percent.

Rates Vary Across the Neighborhoods

The ZIP code with the highest rates — 11233 — covers an eastern portion of Bed-Stuy, as well as parts of Brownsville and Crown Heights. Its 28.1 percent positivity rate was followed closely by 11221, which spans Bed-Stuy and part of Bushwick and had a 25.12 percent positivity, data shows.

Positivity in the neighborhood's three western ZIP codes — 11216, 11206 and 11205 — were lower, with the lowest rate found in 11205 at 15 percent. 11205 includes Clinton Hill and Fort Greene.

The local surge comes as the city and state report a record number of coronavirus cases driven by the highly contagious omicron variant, which is now New York City's dominant strain, according to health officials.

The city as a whole reported 21,846 new positive tests on Wednesday. The record count, set days earlier, was 31,024 new cases.

Rates in Bed-Stuy span some of the highest in the city and, in the case of 11205, the lowest, data shows. The highest positivity rate across the five boroughs as of Dec. 27 was found nearby in Brownsville's 11212 ZIP code, where nearly 34 percent of people tested positive.

Hospitalizations Are Still Below Peak

Crucially, however, hospitalizations remain well below previous peaks — though they are rising.

Across all five ZIP codes, 132 residents were hospitalized with the coronavirus during the 28-day period that ended Dec. 16, an average of 36 per 100,000 people, data shows.

That is well below the levels seen during previous surges: in March of this year, the hospitalization rate stood at 88 per 100,000 people, data shows. (The latest data does not include hospitalizations that happened within the past two weeks, however.)

No residents of Bed-Stuy have died from the virus during the most recent 28 days, according to the city.

The city's vaccination campaign has been credited with the comparatively low hospitalization rate — indeed, city data shows far higher hospitalization rates among unvaccinated people (39 percent, as of Dec. 11) compared to vaccinated people (4 percent).

"We saw it with [the delta variant] and the now we are seeing it with omicron: you are most likely to get sick or hospitalized from any COVID variant, including this variant, if you are not that vaccinated," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. "Vaccination prevents serious illness and it prevents hospitalization."

To find a place to get tested for COVID-19, use the city's official map or visit a walk-in Health + Hospitals site. To get vaccinated or boosted, visit vaccinefinder.nyc.gov.