Harlem's COVID-19 Rates: Where Things Stand

HARLEM, NY — 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 Harlemites now infected with COVID-19.

During the week that ended Oct. 10, the most recent for which data is available, a combined 269 residents of Harlem's ZIP codes tested positive for COVID-19, according to the city — a positivity rate of nearly 8 percent.

That's still a lower figure than what the neighborhood was recording earlier this summer, when the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant of omicron was on the rise in New York, and across the U.S.

During one week in early July, for example, Harlem had a 15.6 percent positivity rate, as at least 883 residents tested positive for the virus, city data shows.

Thanks in part to widespread vaccination, cases in the neighborhood are less severe than during the early stages of the pandemic: 115 Harlemites had been hospitalized with COVID-19 during a 28-day period through Sept. 29, but no deaths were recorded in that span.

Through early October, about 75 percent of Harlem 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.