Half Of Brooklyn Adults Are Now Fully Vaccinated: Data

BROOKLYN, NY — Half of adult Brooklynites are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, making the borough the second to last in New York City to reach the milestone, data shows.

Brooklyn reached the 50-percent threshold for residents 18 and older on Monday.

The milestone, predictably, comes about a month after Brooklyn reached its 50-percent partial vaccination rate.

It also comes after the city as a whole reached the halfway mark among adults and even longer since Manhattan, with the highest vaccine rate in the city, passed the threshold. All boroughs but the Bronx — where 47 percent of residents over 18 were fully vaccinated as of Monday — have now reached the halfway point.

(Keep up with NYC events and news by subscribing to Prospect Heights/Crown Heights Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The city has also started keeping track of the vaccinate rate in terms of the total population given the fact that New Yorkers as young as 12 years old are now eligible for the vaccine. In terms of all ages, 46 percent of Brooklynites have gotten their first shot and 39 percent are fully vaccinated.

Brooklyn and the Bronx have both lagged behind the other three boroughs since the start of the city's vaccine distribution as officials struggled to reach neighborhoods hardest-hit by the pandemic.

The picture in Brooklyn, and across the city, remains uneven.

Vaccination rates have consistently soared wealthier and whiter neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, which reached a 50-percent full vaccination rate among adults in late April. Brooklyn Height has the highest rate in the borough with more than 75 percent of adults being full vaccinated as of Monday.

In other neighborhoods — including ZIP codes in Canarsie, Brownsville and Crown Heights — the percent of adults fully vaccinated is as low as 35 percent, data shows.

On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state and local government will double down on their efforts to reach areas with low vaccination rates, including several Brooklyn ZIP codes that are in among the lowest in the state.

The effort comes as Cuomo aims to lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions when 70 percent of New York's adults have gotten at least their first dose of the vaccine. As of Monday, that rate stood at 68.6 percent, according to the governor.

"I want everybody focusing on these ZIP codes...that is where we have the greatest chance for advancement," Cuomo said. "Redeploy assets to these ZIP codes because that's where you can make a difference."