‘Urgent Action’ Needed On Growing Coronavirus Clusters: De Blasio

NEW YORK CITY — New data shows coronavirus upticks in Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods are a bigger problem than officials first realized, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

De Blasio on Wednesday identified clusters of COVID-19 cases centered on Ocean Parkway, Edgemere and Far Rockaway, Williamsburg and Kew Gardens.

Together, the clusters account for 20 percent of all cases citywide, he said.

“I want to be clear this is something that requires urgent action,” he said.

The urgency developed in the day since de Blasio first identified upticks in the neighborhoods and surrounding areas. He said additional data showed the clusters were growing faster than officials had known.

There have been 2,414 coronavirus cases in those clusters since August, according to data presented by Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals.

The Ocean Parkway cluster covering Bensonhurst, Borough Park and Midwood is the biggest cluster by far with 1,660 cases, according to data Katz presented. Its coronavirus positivity rate stands at 4.71 percent — the citywide average stands at 0.75 percent as of Wednesday, de Blasio said.

The positivity rates for the Far Rockaway, Williamsburg and Kew Gardens clusters are 3.69 percent, 2 percent and 2.24 percent, respectively, according to data.

Many of those neighborhoods have large Orthodox Jewish populations, a fact de Blasio left unsaid until reporters quizzed him on the connection.

De Blasio said officials have been in regular contact with rabbinical leaders and will redouble efforts to encourage social distancing and other health measures, especially amid the High Holidays.

Katz recounted how his father-in-law died two days ago in Israel from coronavirus.

“An added burden of this is we can’t engage in the usual rites that we would engage in in times that are really hard, like bringing large numbers of people together for a funeral,” he said. “We weren’t able to do that for him.”

Sacrifices like that are hard but necessary to get communities through COVID-19, Katz said. Moving forward, health officials will make thousands of robocalls in English and Yiddish, continue meetings with high-level religious community members, and deliver masks and gloves to affected neighborhoods, among other efforts.

Officials will also discourage large indoor gatherings, de Blasio said.

“Again, you’ll see a very intensive effort over these next days and next weeks,” de Blasio said.