Downstate clusters drive state’s COVID rate to 1.5 percent

New York saw its coronavirus positivity rate climb to 1.5 percent on Sunday as cases spiked in downstate counties over the weekend, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Monday.

Cuomo said the state conducted 52,000 tests Sunday, of which 834 were positive, signaling a statewide infection rate of about 1.5 percent. The governor said the increase is largely driven by communities in the New York City region. Taking out the top 20 ZIP codes with the highest infection rates would put New

York's statewide infection rate at about 1 percent, Cuomo said.

“Brooklyn is a major contributor in the number of cases, and then Orange and Rockland (counties),” he said. “We have specific ZIP codes in Brooklyn that we are going to be looking at because it's very targeted.”

Later Monday, Cuomo held a second press call to provide an overview of positivity rates in these communities, ranging from as high as 30 percent to 6 percent.

In the 10977 ZIP code of Rockland County, Cuomo said the positivity rate is 30 percent; in the Kings County (Brooklyn) ZIP code of 11219 it is 17 percent; and in the Queens County ZIP code of 11367 it is 6 percent.

The governor said the state will deploy resources to those communities to do additional testing and to enforce compliance measures. He also called on local governments to step up enforcement of social distancing and mask wearing. New York will be provided 200 rapid-test machines to those communities, and Cuomo said state Department of Health staff are available to assist communities ramp up testing.

“The public schools, the private schools in those ZIP codes, I strongly encourage to request a rapid-testing machine and have them start testing their students,” Cuomo said. “We have 200 machines earmarked just for that cluster. The key for these clusters is to jump on them quickly, attack them on all sides.”

Health experts have warned of a second surge in the fall as students return to school and as cool temperatures drive people indoors.

Cuomo said New York will be monitoring international travel and advising travelers that the state has a mandatory quarantine for any countries that have been identified as higher risk for CO

VID -19 exposure. He also called on homeless shelters to safely open their doors as temperatures begin to dip and as New Yorkers express concerns over encampments of the homeless further exacerbating public health concerns.

"The public is anxious for their own public health. I'm anxious about the health of homeless people," Cuomo said. “We'll put out guidance early this week on COVID -safe shelters, but they know basically how to make a facility COVID -safe because they have all been doing it on a number of applications. The shelters have to open; it's getting cold.”