Forest Hills Nears Two Major COVID-19 Milestones

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Forest Hills is approaching two major COVID-19 milestones.

Nearly half of all adults, 48 percent, in the 11375 ZIP code are fully vaccinated — with more than half, 56 percent, having already received at least one jab of the COVID-19 vaccine — and the neighborhood’s seven-day coronavirus positivity rate this week is dropping towards one percent, data shows.

These milestones coincide with the first day that the city’s coronavirus benchmarks have fallen below warning thresholds since October 17, and the city’s first official day of reopening.

The vaccination rate in Forest Hills exceeds the borough’s overall rate, and rates in the city at large.

Citywide, just under half, 48 percent, of New Yorkers have gotten at least their first dose, and just under 40 percent are fully vaccinated. Similarly, in Queens those rates were 52 and 42 percent as of Wednesday, respectively.

However some neighborhoods in Queens — primarily those populated by lower-income, people of color, especially in southeast Queens — are lagging behind in achieving COVID-19 milestones.

Fewer than 35 percent of residents in some Queens neighborhoods, including Rosedale, Far Rockaway, and St. Albans, have received their first COVID-19 vaccine, and all of those neighborhoods have a seven-day coronavirus positivity rate of more than two percent, data shows.

Far Rockaway, which has remained a case study in the vaccine rollout disparities throughout the city’s vaccination effort, remains the area with the lowest percentage of vaccinated adults citywide.

As of Wednesday only 28 percent of residents in the 11619 ZIP code had received their first jab, compared with the nearly entirely white neighborhood of Breezy Point on the Rockaway Peninsula's western tip, where 74 percent of adults are partially vaccinated.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is continuing to try and further New York City’s vaccine campaign, urging young people to get vaccinated and offering walk-in vaccine appointments citywide.