TURNING
Omicron continues rampage,
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Police Blotter ..........................8
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Person of the Year .............23
Health ..................................... 32
Opinion ...................................36
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 4 IFE, JANUARY 21-27, 2022
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The Omicron variant is
still rampaging throughout
the borough, but the oncelong
lines for COVID-19 tests
have disappeared, allowing
Brooklynites to easily access
both PCR nasal swabs and
rapid throat tests.
The highly-transmissible
variant, which has sent case
numbers, positivity rates,
and hospitalizations to levels
not seen since the pandemic’s
terrifying earliest days, appears
to be waning.
Cases in the Big Apple appear
to have peaked earlier
this month, according to city
and state data, though both
show the peak occurring on
different days.
Brooklyn’s peak came either
on Jan. 1, when 22.6 percent
of tests came back positive,
or on Jan. 6, when 13,063
people tested positive, according
to state data.
On Jan. 17, the latest day
with available data, Brooklyn
had 3,633 positive cases.
The positivity rate in Brooklyn
over the past seven days
has gone from 20.69 percent
on Jan. 6 to just 8.3 percent on
Jan. 17, per state data.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said
Jan. 14 that the state appears
to be “turning a corner,” with
cases statewide down to about
22,312 per-day from a high of
90,000 a week ago.
“That is a very positive
trend and I believe we’ll be
able to keep that going,” the
governor said.
Still, cases remain higher
than they’ve been in any previous
wave of the pandemic.
But the long lines for COVID
A hand-written sign reading “No COVID Tests” is attached to a pharmacy door. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
tests that dominated headlines
through the December
holidays are now a thing of
the past.
No brick-and-mortar testing
site run by the city’s public
hospital network, NYC
Health + Hospitals, has a line
longer than 30 minutes at
present, according to H+H’s
wait time dashboard; most
have no line at all, and testseekers
can just walk right in.
That stands in stark contrast
to just a few weeks ago when
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