BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
Despite New York City’s
momentum in its accelerated
reopening of the city, the COVID
19 virus has not gone
away.
In recent weeks, COVID
19’s most transmissible
and contagious strain to date,
the Delta variant, has led to a
spike in nationwide coronavirus
infection rates, particularly
among the unvaccinated,
according to health offi cials.
After ending the month of
June with a daily case rate of
20 to 25 cases, Bronx County
saw its highest increase of COVID
19 cases on July 17, with
92 newly reported cases, according
to data from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
And within the borough,
the Hunts Point and Castle
Hill sections of the Bronx
have the highest positivity
rates, reaching 2.2 and 2.1%
on July 17, respectively.
During the peak of the pandemic
in 2020, the Bronx had
the most cases and deaths
per 100,000 out of NYC’s metropolitan
area. According to
the latest Johns Hopkins University
data released on July
18, Bronx County had 178,107
reported COVID-19 cases and
6,592 COVID-related deaths.
Of the fi ve boroughs of New
York City, Staten Island had
the highest rate of coronavirus
cases per 100,000 people
last month with 13,373. The
Bronx was second with 10,701
per 100,000.
Roughly 49.5% of the general
Bronx County population
— 636,425 out of 1.4 million
— have received one dose
of the COVID-19 vaccine shot,
as of Monday. According to
the latest city Health Department
data from Monday, 69%
of NYC’s adult population has
received at least one dose of
the COVID-19 vaccine, with
roughly 64% fully vaccinated.
However, NYC reached a
1.69% positivity rate on Monday,
which is up more than
64% over the past seven days
compared to the weekly average
for the previous four
weeks, according to health
data.
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 2 ULY 23-29, 2021 BTR
Data further shows that
41.9% of New York City’s general
population are unvaccinated.
The city has been successful
over the last month in a
steady decline in new COVID
infections as well as fewer hospitalizations
and deaths, but
new daily case counts have
surged past 1,000 which dwarf
the 300 to 400 daily caseload
that was reported by Gov. Andrew
Cuomo, a Democrat, in
prior weeks.
During a press briefing
on Monday, July 19 NYC
Health Commissioner Dr. David
Chokshisaid that the new
wave of infections are almost
exclusively among unvaccinated
individuals.
“Our concern is primarily
for people who remain unvaccinated,
which is why the single
most important thing that
we can do to keep individuals
as well as our communities,
our city, safe is to get as many
people vaccinated as possible,”
Health offi cials in New York City and across the nation have said the
recent spikes in COVID-19 cases have been exclusively among the unvaccinated.
File photo
Chokshi said.
Democratic Mayor Bill De-
Blasio said during Monday’s
briefi ng that imposing a mask
mandate in the city would be
“doing a disservice,” and instead,
put his attention to vaccination
totals in the city.
“Let’s address the problem
by getting more people vaccinated
and going right at it, and
knocking down this variant,”
DeBlasio said. “You know, a
mask doesn’t arrest the progress
of the variant — vaccination
does. So we’re gonna
go where the real impact is,
that’s the bottom line.”
Forty-eight states have
seen new case numbers surge
at least 10% higher than the
previous week, according to
data from Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 strain causing
Bronx cases to jump