NYC Daily Coronavirus Rate Back Below 1% After Surpassing 3% High

NEW YORK CITY — The city's daily coronavirus positive rate dipped back to 0.94 percent, a significant step back from a months-long high just one day before, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

But COVID-19 cases remain on the rise in six of nine Brooklyn and Queens ZIP codes identified as areas of concern by health officials, de Blasio said Wednesday.

Those clusters, along with four other areas that are being monitored, will be the subject of continued outreach efforts, increased enforcement on mask wearing and restaurant compliance and expanded testing, he said.

"All of this can help, will help, is helping," he said.

De Blasio on Tuesday announced that the city's daily coronavirus positive rate ticked above 3 percent for the first time since June. Much of that rise has been traced to nine ZIP codes, which account for 25 percent of all cases citywide over the past two weeks, officials said.

Those ZIP codes and their latest positivity rates, according to data presented by de Blasio on Wednesday, are:

• Gravesend/Homecrest, 11223 — 6.92 percent
• Midwood, 11230 — 5.64 percent
• Kew Gardens, 11415 — 3.31 percent
• Edgemere/Far Rockaway — 4.91 percent
• Borough Park, 11219 — 6.23 percent
• Bensonhurst/Mapleton, 11204 — 6.05 percent
• Gerritsen Beach/Homecrest/Sheepshead Bay, 11229 — 4.05 percent
• Flatlands/Midwood, 11210 — 4.73 percent
• Kew Gardens Hills/Pomonok, 11367 — 3.6 percent

The city's positivity rate on a seven-day average — generally considered a more accurate measurement of the virus' spread — is 1.46 percent, according to city data.

De Blasio said officials will step up efforts to fight the virus in the cluster ZIP codes. Residents will see 400 additional NYPD officers and 250 compliance officers from city agencies conducting outreach, mask distributions and face covering enforcement.

"No summonses were necessary (Tuesday)," he said. "We would love to see that continue but obviously (we're) prepared to issue summonses as needed."

Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said city workers also plan to amp up testing efforts.

"The virus is insidious, many people are asymptomatic and don't know they're infected and can spread the disease," he said. "Increased testing helps us to identify those people."

The efforts will include "block parties" that turn streets and sidewalks into testing sites, Katz said. There will be six such sites that can churn out up to 3,000 tests a day, he said.

Other areas such as schools and houses of worship will receive self-administered tests, Katz said. Also, 38 rapid testing machines that can return results in 20 minutes or less will go to doctors offices, he said.

Coronavirus testing results are coming in much faster than the past and the process is easier than ever, de Blasio said.

"You can help New York City by going out and getting tested today," he said.