Upper East Side COVID Rates Climb As Omicron Subvariant Spreads: Data

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — It isn't deja vu: a contagious strain of the coronavirus is once again causing cases of COVID-19 to rise on the Upper East Side, and across the city.

This time, it's BA.2, a subvariant of omicron, which has already led to a virus wave in Europe and appears poised to do the same in the U.S. The subvariant already makes up a majority of new U.S. cases, including 60 percent in New York state, according to the latest data.

On the Upper East Side, testing data shows that cases began rising in early March and have continued climbing since then. In the week that ended on March 29, 319 Upper East Siders tested positive for COVID-19 — a 5.1 percent positivity rate.

That's roughly the same rate that the neighborhood recorded in mid-December, during the early days of the first omicron wave that ultimately peaked weeks later, when the Upper East Side's positivity rates topped 20 percent.

The Upper East Side appears to be getting hit especially hard by BA.2. Sorted by positivity rate, all but one of the neighborhood's five ZIP codes ranked within the top fifth of all New York City ZIP codes, according to the latest data.

Amid concern over the rising case numbers, Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday that children under age 5 would need to continue wearing masks in preschools and daycares.

"We’re seeing a slight uptick, and we want to be prepared — not panicked," Adams said.

Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city's health commissioner, recommended Friday that New Yorkers keep wearing masks in public indoor settings, predicting that cases will continue to rise over the next few weeks.

Still, Dr. Anthony Fauci and New York state's top health official have both predicted in recent days that BA.2 will not cause a large surge in cases, thanks to a combination of vaccine protection and natural immunity conferred from previous cases of COVID-19.