No Decline Yet In NYC Coronavirus Hotspots, Cuomo Says

NEW YORK CITY — Increased focus on coronavirus clusters in Brooklyn and Queens hasn't yet yielded a decline in cases, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

"But it's also too soon to see it in the data," he said Friday. "You know the trajectory of this virus — you come in contact with a person you show symptoms until three or four days, then it could be another week before you manifest the symptoms."

Those areas now under a three-tiered zone of varying lockdowns will remain so for 14 days to give the virus a chance to run its course and actions to take effect, Cuomo said.

The clusters grew over the two weeks and prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to call for localized shutdowns. Cuomo responded with a state plan focused on the clusters themselves, rather than ZIP codes like the city proposed, that drew confusion at first but went into place Thursday.

The most affected areas in New York City and dotted elsewhere across the state are known as "red zones." Cuomo said they comprise 2.8 percent of the state's population but account for 20 percent of its total coronavirus cases.

Positivity rates in the red zones stand at 6.6 percent overall, Cuomo said. Without the hotspots, the state's rate would be 0.9 percent, he said.

New York City's rate stands at 1.2 percent.

Cuomo again defended the lockdowns in New York City, which primarily cover Orthodox Jewish areas and have drawn at-times violent protests from those communities.

The new lockdowns are less restrictive than the old shutdown rules in the spring, Cuomo said. He said the issue is now they're being enforced.

No community is being singled out, he said, rattling off previous enforcement actions taken against restaurants, bars and colleges where there were concerns over the coronavirus.

"Whenever there is a cluster we have attacked it, so this is nothing new,” he said.