As the coronavirus cases waned in New York City from June through August, the city focused on its phased reopening. Phase 4 started on July 20 and indoor dining at 25% capacity resumed today. But a new reality is settling in — a spike in coronavirus cases in certain areas of the city. We’ve updated our interactive coronavirus maps to show the location of new cases from Labor Day to September 28, 2020.
The recent increase in positive coronavirus cases is coming from a some zip codes predominantly in Brooklyn and Queens. As of data on Monday, the hardest hit area is Gravesend/Homecrest with a 6.72% positivity rate and an increase of 383 cases since September 7th. Midwood has a 5.53% positivity rate and 295 new cases since September 7th. Borough Park had a 5.26 % positivity rate and 82 new cases since September 7th. Other zip codes and neighborhoods of concern include Bensonhurst/Mapleton (5.15% and 145 new cases), Flatlands/Midwood (4.08 %, Sheepshead Bay (4.05 percent), Edgemere/Far Rockaway (3.98 %) ,Kew Gardens (3.61 %), and Kew Gardens Hills/Pomonok (3.04 percent). The statewide positivity rate is at 1%. Taking out those zip codes, and was at below 1% statewide up until two weeks ago.
East Williamsburg has had an uptick in cases but positivity rate is at 1.84%. NYC Department of Health is monitoring that zip code as well as Rego Park (2.49), Kensington/Windsor Terrace (2.5 %) and Brighton Beach/Manhattan Beach/Sheepshead Bay (2.63%). According to NYC Department of Health, during the worst part of the crisis, the city was averaging 33,000 new cases and 2,500 deaths each week. In the last week, NYC saw 2,065 new cases and 28 deaths.
On Friday October 2nd, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that testing in the 20 hotspot zip codes state wide on October 1st yieled a 6.4% positivity rate (429 positives of 6,703 tests). Cuomo also announced that an order would be sent to local governments with hotspot zipcodes “establishing a framework for reporting their enforcement activities and setting specific consequences for failure to enforce the State Department of Health Emergency Regulations and the Governor’s Executive Orders related to social distancing, mask compliance, and capacity limitations. If local governments do not enforce these legally binding requirements, they will be in violation of the order and can be subject to fines” up to $10,000 per day.
On Monday, Governor Cuomo announced he was deploying 200 rapid result testing machines and NYC Department of Health staff to run them to hotspot areas in Brooklyn, and other counties in New York State experiencing upticks in cases. He called on local government, and public and private schools to request the machines. In a press conference, Cuomo noted that although the state had addressed clusters in the past that developed from hotspots, “this is probably the largest cluster that we have addressed before,” adding “A cluster today can be community spread tomorrow.” The governor also announced he will meet with Orthodox Jewish leaders and local officials to help control the situation locally.
You can see below the interactive map of COVID cases by zip code, updated from the beginning of the pandemic to 9/28. Untapped New York contributor Ben Huff, who is a Master of Science graduate in Urban Planning from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), created all of our interactive maps using by layering the zip code shape file from NYC Open Data with the Department of Health data.
Below is an interactive map of deaths by zip code in New York City. New York City counts a death if there was a positive test for COVID-19 confirmed by laboratories and confirmations of a person’s death from the City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Bureau of Vital Statistics. The data in the map does not include probable deaths, which includes deaths with no known positive laboratory test for the virus that causes COVID-19, but the death certificate lists “COVID-19” or an equivalent as a cause of death. Probable deaths are being tracked by the Department of Health however, and over time, probable deaths may get recategorized as confirmed deaths.
Some notes: The neighborhood names are assigned by the NYC Department of Health but they don’t always align with what residents term that area, so you may find yourself questioning some neighborhood designations. Rest assured, the data by zip code is correct. The death data will also differ from those on the New York State Department of Health, which collects data differently. Williamsburg zip code 11249 continues to be missing from the Github data file for both coronavirus cases and deaths, and we had heard NYC Department of Health has been assigning 11249 cases and deaths to 11211. As such, we have combined those zip codes in these maps so that Williamsburg data does not look misleadingly low. Because the Department of Health data sets for coronavirus cases by zip code did not (and still does not) contain population data, we utilized updated zip code population numbers from the 2014-2018 5 Year American Community Survey Census estimate which is the best count available before the 2020 Census is complete (fill out the 2020 Census!) for our maps of positive COVID-19 cases. Since the death data released yesterday by Department Health does include zip code population data (“calculated using interpolated intercensal population estimates updated in 2019, according to the NYC Department of Health), our Total Deaths by Zip Code map utilizes this population data vs. the American Community Survey Census estimate.
We have made our maps from open source data and produced it in a form that is embeddable you can use the codes below. Please just give credit to Ben Huff/Untapped New York:
Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York and the author of The Art Spy (HarperOne, forthcoming) Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York Hidden Bars & Restaurants, and Broadway. michelleyoungwriter.com
