Staten Island continues to defy the citywide trend in COVID-19 case reductions and vaccinations, according to the latest New York City Health Department data.
The rock had seven of the 10 ZIP codes in the Five Boroughs with the highest 7-day positivity rates between the week of Sept. 2-8. Staten Island also had the two areas with the largest number of new COVID-19 infections for the same period.
This comes as the city’s Health Department reports that COVID-19 is back in retreat across the city, with positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths all decreasing once again after a summer surge connected to the spread of the Delta variant.
If anything, things have gotten worse over the past week for parts of Staten Island — a borough that has been gripped with vaccine hesitancy from the very start and saw some of the most stringent protests against mask mandates last year.
After Mayor Bill de Blasio and then-Governor Andrew Cuomo imposed vaccine mandates on businesses and health care facilities, Staten Island saw protests from business owners and health care workers who decried the measures as government overreach and a violation of personal freedom.
The areas of Charleston/Prince’s Bay/Woodrow (ZIP code 10309) registered the highest 7-day positivity rate in the city the week of Sept. 2-8, with 10.22%. That’s up more than a full percent from the previous week, Aug. 28-Sept. 3 (9%).
The area also saw the total number of new COVID-19 infections rise from 98 between Aug. 28-Sept. 3 to 104 between Sept. 2-8.
The 7-day positivity rates also increased in the Staten Island areas of Tottenville (10307, 9.09% between Sept. 2-8, up from 8.71% between Aug. 28-Sept. 3); Great Kills (10308, 8.23% between Sept. 2-8, up from 8.02% between Aug. 28-Sept. 3); and Annadale/Rossville (10312, 7.22% between Sept. 2-8, up from 7.18% between Aug. 28-Sept. 3).
Breezy Point, Queens (11697). which last week had the highest 7-day positivity rate in the entire city at 11.11%, dropped off the top 10 list due to a substantially lower number of cases reported in the lightly-populated neighborhood. It clocked in the week of Sept. 2-8 with a 2.73% positivity rate and just three new infections.
All but two of the areas on the 7-day positivity rate top 10 list currently have a fully vaccinated rate below 60%. Tottenville on Staten Island has the lowest fully vaccinated rate of all at 47%.
Staten Island’s overall fully vaccinated rate of 57% is third among the five boroughs, but four points below the citywide rate of 61%.
In terms of total number of new COVID-19 infections, two Staten Island communities led the top 10 list as well: Bloomfield/Fresh Kills Park (10304) had the highest number of new positive cases between Sept. 2-8 with 143; the area’s 5.62% 7-day positivity rate, however, was not in the top 10 list for 7-day positivity rates.
Annadale/Rossville had the second most new COVID-19 infections in the city with 126, followed by Ridgewood/Glendale, Queens (11385) with 121 and East Williamsburg/Williamsburg, Brooklyn (11211/11249) at 118.
Chances are the overwhelming majority of new COVID-19 cases involve the Delta variant; the city’s Department of Health reported that 98% of all new infections tested in the last month involved the highly-contagious, more potent strain.
On the vaccination front, eight New York City neighborhoods have fully vaccinated rates above 90%. All but one of them are in Manhattan. Areas of the Financial District, Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea all registered a perfect score.
In all, the spread of COVID-19 continues to decrease across the Five Boroughs, according to the city’s Health Department. On Sept. 10, the city reported a 7-day positivity rate of 3.04%, down from the 3.44% registered on Sept. 2.
The hospitalization rate is down to 1.10 per 100,000 residents; more than 97% of all hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, health officials have said previously.
The overall report remains positive for a city that will begin enforcing vaccinate mandates for businesses, and see many Broadway shows reopen, this week.
But COVID-19 continues to kill dozens of people per week. On Sept. 11, Governor Kathy Hochul’s office reported 34 new COVID-19 deaths statewide, including 16 in New York City — five in the Bronx, two in Brooklyn, three in Manhattan, five in Queens and one on Staten Island.
