Brownsville, East NY COVID Rates Rise As Subvariant Spreads: Data

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — A highly contagious sub-variant is fueling an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the country, including in Brownsville and East New York.

Coronavirus rates have gone up in all of the neighborhoods' five ZIP codes in the last few weeks, bringing the average positivity in Brownsville and East New York to more than 15 percent in the seven days ending last Friday, according to city data.

The 15.5 percent overall rate is slightly higher than the city's 14 percent positivity, though not all parts of the neighborhood have fared the same.

The highest positivity rate can be found in 11208, which includes Cypress Hills and had reached 17.71 percent as of Friday, data shows. Brownsville's 11212 was not far behind with a 16.93 percent positivity rate, according to the data.

The rates are a far cry from where positivity stood in mid-March, at the end of the first omicron wave — in 11208, for example, the average positivity rate was less than 1 percent throughout the month. Still, the recent uptick hasn't reached the level of the omicron wave's peak, when positivity stood as high as 41 percent in the ZIP code, data shows.

In New York and across the U.S., the summertime jump in virus cases has been driven by BA.5, a subvariant of omicron that has been described as the most contagious strain of COVID-19 yet to emerge. Across New York state, BA.5 made up 80 percent of new cases during the week that ended July 16.

Here's a closer look at Brownsville and East New York's numbers as of July 22:

• 1233: Bedford-Stuyvesant (East)/Ocean Hill-Brownsville
  • 7-day percent positive: 15.38%
  • People tested (reported to date): 1,125
  • New people positive (reported to date): 173
• 11208: Cypress Hills/East New York
  • 7-day percent positive: 17.71%
  • People tested (reported to date): 1,152
  • New people positive (reported to date): 204
• 11207: Cypress Hills/East New York
  • 7-day percent positive: 14.39%
  • People tested (reported to date): 1,202
  • New people positive (reported to date): 173
• 11239: East New York
  • 7-day percent positive: 13.45%
  • People tested (reported to date): 223
  • New people positive (reported to date): 30
• 11212: Ocean Hill-Brownsville
  • 7-day percent positive: 16.93%
  • People tested (reported to date): 1,081
  • New people positive (reported to date): 183

Amid the increase, however, New York's leaders have resisted putting any new restrictions in place. In a news conference on Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York City schools would remain mask-optional in the fall — though the mask mandate for public transit riders would remain in place, she said.

"I'm going to reserve the right to return to this policy if the numbers change, the circumstances change and the severity of the illness has changed," Hochul said of the school rules.

Hochul said fall COVID-19 plans will include a "militaristic" level of preparation.
The state has 20 million at-home tests stockpiled that will be dedicated for students going back to school, she said.

"I know it's only midsummer, but we have the luxury now of time to prepare for the inevitability, which is parents and teachers being anxious about going back to the classroom again," she said.

Matt Troutman and Nick Garber contributed to this report.