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Covid-19 infections in New York are on the rise for the first time in months as the delta variant gains traction and vaccination rates in some boroughs remain stubbornly low.
The city’s average seven-day positive test rate rose slowly throughout July and had roughly doubled in two weeks to 1.27% on Saturday. On average, there were 328 new confirmed and probable cases per day over the past week, up from 208 as of June 28.
New York case
New York Covid-19 cases have started to increase
Source: NYC Health
It’s a far cry from this year’s peaks when city officials reported thousands of cases per day, and the positivity rate is lower than the national rate 3.4% level. But the trend line is concerning, given the possibility of variants spreading in pockets of the city where fewer residents are vaccinated.
“The spread of the delta variant means this may be the most dangerous time to go unvaccinated,” Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, said during a virus briefing on Monday. “This is why we have ensured that our vaccination efforts continue as urgently as possible. “
Mayor Bill de Blasio failed to meet his goal of vaccinating 5 million New Yorkers by June. As of mid-July, only 4.4 million New Yorkers are fully vaccinated, or 53% of the population. Meanwhile, the inoculation rate has dropped to around 16,000 doses per day from more than 100,000 in April.
Staten Island has become a miniature hotspot, with its seven-day positivity rate averaging 2.34% as of July 8, well above the city average. Great Kills and Silver Lake / St. George’s neighborhoods had the highest hospitalization rates in the city in the last 28-day period reported, May 31 to June 27.
Chokshi said younger, unvaccinated people on Staten Island are a primary cause. Less than half of the population is fully vaccinated, as is the case in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
About 26% of cases tested in the past 4 weeks have been classified as B.1.617.2, or delta, a highly contagious variant that was first detected in India and is now the dominant strain in the United States
De Blasio said the city was closely monitoring the data and the low hospitalization rate was a good sign. On average, around 20 patients have been hospitalized daily across the city, some of the lowest rates since the start of the pandemic.
Nationally, the United States reports a seven-day case rate of about 37 cases per 100,000 people, with New York City at about 21. Missouri and Arkansas have the highest rates , more than 160 per 100,000.
– With the help of Henry Goldman
(Corrects the time reference in the last paragraph)
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