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COVID Positivity Rate Decreased, while NYC Continues to Vaccinate

COVID Positivity Rate Decreased, while NYC Continues to Vaccinate

By Yehudit Garmaise

  One hopeful thought is that the COVID-positivity rate is going down, while the number of New Yorkers who are vaccinated is going up.

   Today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 in New York has dropped from 8.41% to 7.39%, and the hospitalization rate dipped to 117 as well, although 197 New Yorkers died from COVID-19 yesterday.

    Mayor Bill de Blasio announced yesterday that the governor increased the category of eligible people, such as home healthcare workers, and members of the police force, who could get vaccinated immediately at no cost.

    In addition, on Sunday the mayor announced that he is opening two mass vaccination centers that will operate 24/7 at the Brooklyn Army Terminal and Bathgate Industrial Park in the Bronx. 

    Another 12 vaccine hubs located at various public high schools in all five boroughs will open by next Friday. The operating hours at those sites, however, will be more limited.

    Mayor de Blasio pledged to vaccine 1 million New Yorkers by the end of January, and he can’t facilitate that goal soon enough, as the first New York State case of the United Kingdom variant of the COVID virus was traced back to a jewelry store employee in Saratoga Springs, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.

     The male employee of n. Fox Jewelers had not traveled to the UK but became sick with the new, highly transmissible version of the COVID-19.

      Contact tracing efforts revealed that the jewelry store workers had contact with someone who had traveled to the United Kingdom, according to State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker.

      As long as people are infected with COVID-19, the virus will continue to mutate into more and more strains, such as have been found in the United Kingdom, South Africa.

    “Dog bark, ducks quack, viruses mutate, that’s what they do,” said Jay Varma, MD, Mayor de Blasio’s senior adviser for public health, seemingly reiterating the need to vaccinate the public as soon as possible.

    “We have thousands of appointments [to vaccinate everyone who has been approved] currently available, if you are a healthcare worker or in any of the categories of essential workers the mayor mentioned,” Dave A. Chokshi, MD, Commissioner of Health of the City of New York, said this morning.

Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office


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