Trending in the right direction
Brooklyn COVID rates remain low as mask, vaccine mandates loosen
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Two major coronavirus
restrictions expired in New
York City Monday, March 7, as
promised by Mayor Eric Adams
if COVID-19 case rates remained
low.
The city’s “Key to NYC,”
which required patrons of indoor
venues like restaurants,
theaters, gyms, and movie theaters,
has offi cially been rolled
back, though individual restaurants
can still ask for proof
of vaccination and require
masking indoors. Schools are
also now mask-optional for
students fi ve and over, though
younger students, who are ineligible
for the vaccine, are
still required to wear face coverings
in their classrooms.
Former Brooklyn Beep
Adams promised New Yorkers
he would relax the rules if
the number of cases in the city
stayed low, and they have —
citywide, new cases, hospitalizations,
and deaths are slowly
but steadily decreasing. According
to the city’s new “risk
alert” system, community
spread is low, but offi cial guidance
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still recommends maskwearing
in public settings
where the vaccination status
of other people is unknown.
Numbers are decreasing,
but they’re still not low —
case rates in the city were at
historic highs early this year
as the extremely-contagious
Omicron variant swept the
city. According to the federal
Centers for Disease Control,
community transmission in
Kings County is “substantial,”
the second-highest category,
with just over 1,3000 new
cases and 35 deaths in the last
seven days, according to the
most recent data. The test positivity
rate is hovering at just
around 1 percent.
Brooklyn’s 7-day case
rate, of 12,179.8 per 100,000, is
slightly lower than the citywide
rate, but the borough’s
death rate is higher — 417 per
100,000 compared to New York
City’s 407.55 per 100,0000.
Across Brooklyn itself,
positivity rates vary widely.
Brooklyn Heights, Downtown
Brooklyn, and DUMBO have
the highest positivity rate of
any ZIP code in the borough
— nearly 3 percent of tests
have come back positive there
between Feb. 26 and March 4,
higher than the citywide 7-day
average positivity rate of 1.33
percent in the same period of
time. Kensington/Windsor
Terrace, on the other hand,
had only a .51 percent positivity
rate, followed closely by
Sunset Park at .55 percent.
Since last year, the case
rate in 11201, the ZIP code
containing Downtown Brooklyn,
DUMBO, and Brooklyn
Heights, has had a case rate
lower than city-and-boroughwide
averages, but the testing
and vaccination rates there
are above average. By contrast,
Borough Park/Kensington’s
case rate has roughly
kept pace with the wider averages,
and the test rate there is
slightly lower.
Some neighborhoods have
similar positivity rates, but
vastly different rates of actual
tests. Brighton Beach/
Coney Island/Seagate has a
1.11 percent positivity rate
as of March 7, while Bedford-
Stuyvesant/Clinton Hill, Fort
Greene’s rate is 1.4 percent.
But in Brighton Beach/Coney
Island/Seagate, only 995
people were tested in the last
seven days — fewer than 300
per 100,000 people — resulting
in just 11 positive tests. In Bedford
Stuyvesant/Clinton Hill/
Fort Greene, nearly 3,0000
people were tested that same
week, or more than 935 per
100,0000, with 30 positive tests.
According to city data,
nine public schools in Brooklyn
have at least one positive
case as of March 6, but all
schools and classrooms are
still fully open.
Mayor Eric Adams announced the suspension of the “Key to NYC” program
as COVID-19 rates in the city continued to fall in March. Michael
Appleton/Mayoral Photograpy Offi ce
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