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New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio said officials were “ready” to take action if the Delta variant became a major concern in the metropolis, and that he saw no need to tighten restrictions “for the moment”.

DeBlasio has sought to downplay the immediate risks of a major outbreak in New York City of the Delta variant, a more transmissible strain of Covid-19 that has been responsible for an increase in new infections in countries like the UK, l ‘Australia and India, where it was first identified.

The mayor said city officials were monitoring the new strain “very carefully,” but “the bottom line is that right now we are winning the Delta variant case” because of the vaccine uptake throughout. the city.

“We will always be ready if we see that things start to change,” he said. The kind of change that could trigger further restrictions could “take weeks and weeks,” he said, and officials “would make adjustments when we see real consistent evidence.”

New York City’s coronavirus indicators “were heading in the right direction,” DeBlasio said. The state, as a whole, performed more tests than any other place in the United States over the past week, but also had one of the lowest positivity rates in the country.

Asked by reporters whether the spread of the Delta variant in New York could trigger further lockdowns, DeBlasio said: “We don’t see that likelihood at this time.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New York City reported about 2.2 new cases per 100,000 people per day during the week ended June 28, compared to a national average of about 3.1 .

In the four weeks ended June 5, 3.1% of cases genomically sequenced in New York state were the Delta variant. Anthony Fauci, senior advisor to the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said last week that the Delta strain accounted for about 20% of new cases in the fortnight ended June 19.

DeBlasio and his public health officials reiterated that getting vaccinated remains the city’s best protection against the damaging effects of the more transmissible Covid-19 strains.