NYC to Resume Posting COVID-positivity Rates Online

 By Yehudit Garmaise

   Information is power, and the weapon that Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to use to fight a potential second wave of the coronavirus this winter.

   To that end, the New York City Department of Health is now going to resume posting on nyc.gov/health/coronavirus the positivity rates by zip codes, said the mayor, who wants to New Yorkers to have COVID data clearly accessible.

   “[On the website,] you will be able to see the positivity levels by zip code, the trends that are happening, the test results, transmission rates, the things that will really tell you exactly what is going on.

  “The whole idea here is to take this information and turn it into power, take this information and fight back with it, use it to tell us what we need to do.”

   Although the mayor was hopeful about the availability and distribution, in the near future, of “a vaccine we can trust,” he also said that he sees that “the presence of the coronavirus is trying to reassert itself.

    “We have to do everything in our power to stop the coronavirus from reasserting in NYC, we have to stop a second wave from happening here, which is getting dangerously close.

    “I have been telling you for weeks that we have the ability to stop a second wave and for weeks our numbers were higher than we wanted, but they had leveled off. Now, unfortunately, we have seen a real growth in the positivity rate in this city, and that is dangerous.”

   The mayor said insisted that “we have to act urgently” because although city-wide positivity has long stayed under 2%, New York’s positivity level, unfortunately, now above 2%.

   “We see positivity levels increasing, and that is a problem,” said the mayor, who was sorry to say that negative trends of COVID that the city has not seen in a while have returned. “We are seeing household transmission. We are seeing community spread. We are seeing things we have not seen in a long time, and we have to stop them… There are still parts of the city that are still particularly of concern. There are still some areas of the city that need special attention, special efforts, [such as, testing, outreach, and mask distribution.”

Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office