What to know
- COVID-19 positivity rates have returned to above 20% in parts of Manhattan as the latest data on the city indicate the virus is accumulating before winter.
- The seven-day mobile positivity rate in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen area reaches 22.5 percent, according to city data on Wednesday.
- This is by far the highest rate in New York and no other neighborhood comes close. Just a day earlier, no neighborhood has exceeded 20%.
NEW YORK – COVID-19 positivity rates have returned to above 20% in parts of Manhattan as the latest city data indicates the virus is building up before winter.
The seven-day mobile positivity rate in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen area reaches 22.5 percent, according to city data on Wednesday. This is by far the highest rate in New York and no other neighborhood comes close. Just a day earlier, no neighborhood has exceeded 20%.
At the same time, the transmission rate in Manhattan, at 172.7 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, has increased by 7% in the past two weeks.
City-wide, the seven-day average of new confirmed and probable daily cases declined steadily during the summer through early September, but has since stabilized at a consistent range of approximately 1,800 to 2,200 new cases per day.
In the last few days it has remained very stable at around 2,000 cases per day.
CONCERN VARIATIONS OF COVID-19
Two new strains of COVID-19 that have silently surfaced on the scene in recent weeks, which Dr. Anthony Fauci described as “quite problematic,” are becoming more prevalent in the New York City area, raising new concerns as the nation settles down. prepares for another possible wave this winter, the latest CDC data show.
You may never have heard of these two sub-variants: BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. Both are descendants of Omicron, which has proven to be the most infectious and vaccine-elusive COVID variant to date, and both are spreading at a rapid pace.
This is especially true in the CDC’s New York region, which also includes New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. According to the health agency’s latest variant report, those sub-variants represent 11.6% and 8% (19.6% total), respectively, of COVID cases for the week ending October 15, up from 4.1% and from 1.9% (6% total) of the relationship two weeks earlier.
The CDC estimates that these two variants could account for up to 36.6 percent of cases in the New York area, which is nearly double the estimate of the highest range nationwide.
