Crown Heights COVID Rates Start Dipping, But Cases Still High

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Weeks after the omicron variant began its alarming surge in New York City, data shows that COVID-19 rates are beginning to dip in Prospect and Crown Heights, and around the five boroughs — though cases remain worryingly high.

During the seven-day period that ended on Sunday, more than 5,000 people in five ZIP codes that span the two neighborhoods tested positive for the coronavirus — a positivity rate of 24.8 percent.

While those figures would have been stunningly high just a few months ago, they represent a drop from previous days. During the week ending Jan. 1, the neighborhoods' average positivity rate stood at 32 percent, data shows.

The drop is the first sign of the rates decreasing since the omicron surge began, first bringing Crown and Prospect Heights' rates to record-highs in the weeks before Christmas.

By ZIP code, the lowest positivity in the two neighborhoods is found in Prospect Heights' 11238, where 19 percent of people had positive tests as of Sunday, according to the data.

The highest rate is found in eastern Crown Heights' 11213, which had had just over 30 percent positivity as of Jan. 9, according to the data.

Local health experts have expressed cautious optimism that New York's omicron wave has reached or has surpassed its peak — specifically in the five boroughs.

"As far as NYC, that has been a plateauing in a sense that we hope will continue," Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.

Cases in New York City hovered near 50,000 new infections detected a day at the height of the omicron surge.

Data shows those daily cases started to fall this weekend. They stood at 47,591 on Jan. 7, but fell to 32,236 by Sunday, data shows.

Hochul said New York City still leads state regions for hospitalizations — they stand near 75 people per 100,000, according to data.

Through Dec. 29, 370 people in the two neighborhoods' ZIP codes had been hospitalized with COVID-19 in the previous 28 days — a number likely to rise as more recent data becomes available.

Citywide hospitalizations as of Thursday had reached a 7-day average of 518 per day — a drop from Jan. 2, when the city was averaging 847, but still far above any levels that the city has seen in months.

Patch reporters Nick Garber and Matt Troutman contributed to this report.