Gov. Andrew Cuomo To Keep Brooklyn’s Red Zones Red, Move all Queens’ Zones to Yellow

 By Yehudit Garmaise

      After assessing COVID positivity rates in the state’s zones he created 14 days ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo just announced that due to a continued high rate of COVID positivity in Brooklyn, the borough’s red zones will stay red, however, its orange zones will turn yellow, and all the yellow zones will stay yellow.

  “We are making progress, and we are adjusting the targets,” said Gov. Cuomo, who said that Brooklyn’s positive rates dropped from 7.7% to 5.5%. Because Queens and Kew Gardens dropped from 4.7% to 2.5%, Queens’ red zones are dropping down to yellow, the orange zones turn to yellow, and yellow zones stay yellow. Far Rockaway’s positivity rates dropped form to 3.7% to 1.8%.

   Areas must maintain a positivity rate that remains less than 3% over a course of ten days to exit the status of red zones. The positivity rate must be below 2% to leave orange zones, and the overall positivity rate must be under 1.5% to exit a yellow zone.

   Sources in Williamsburg, which never became a red zone, say that they intentionally increased their testing before Rosh Hashanah because they realized that the COVID negative tests of healthy people bring down the area’s total positivity rate. 

   Therefore, many Jewish leaders ask that everyone in red zones get tested, so that COVID positivity rates are not artificially inflated because only COVID-positive people are being tested.

   Two weeks ago, when Gov. Cuomo first announced his red, orange, yellow zones that correspond to COVID positivity rates, he also increased restrictions in the red zones by closing all non-essential businesses, the public and private schools, reducing shuls’ maximum occupancies to 25% or 10 people, switching restaurants to take-out only, and prohibiting all mass gatherings.

 Governor Cuomo also announced last week that people who refuse to wear masks will be fined $1,000, and the sponsors of mass gatherings who violate the state’s public health rules will be fined $15,000. 

   In the orange zones, which Gov. Cuomo calls a “buffer zones” or protective concentric circles around the hotspots, the schools and non-essential are still closed, but gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed both indoors and outside, outdoor dining with a four-person table maximum is allowed, and shuls can increase their capacities to 33% or 25 people maximum.

    In the yellow zones, the widest buffer zone, or concentric circle around the hotspots, the public and private schools can open, provided that the city conducts mandatory weekly testing of students, teachers, and staffs. The New York State Department of Health will establish a percentage of teachers,  students, and staffs who need to be tested by Friday. In yellow zones, outdoor and indoor gatherings can be increased to 25% capacity, all businesses are open, outdoor dining with a four-person table maximum is allowed, and shuls can be filled to a 50% capacity.

   After Mayor Bill de Blasio apologized yesterday for some of his treatment of and complaints about the Orthodox Jewish community during the pandemic, today, Gov. Cuomo was asked by a reporter whether he also had an apology for the Orthodox Jewish community.

   Gov. Cuomo responded that he was sorry that the Jewish community has to endure so many restrictions right now, but he did not apologize for continuing to call out the community for a lack of compliance.