Park Slope-Adjacent ZIP Code Added To Coronavirus Watchlist

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A ZIP code bordering the southern part of Park Slope has been added to a list of areas where city health officials are worried about an increase in coronavirus cases, the health department said Wednesday.

The 11218 ZIP code — which stretches over Windsor Terrace and Kensington— is one of seven neighborhoods where the coronavirus test positivity rate has been on the rise, and recently reached between 2 and 3 percent.

"These ZIP codes, we’re keeping a close eye on and sending more support into," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. "The same message for people who live in these zip codes: Go out, get tested right away. Obviously, follow all the basics — face masks social distancing."

The seven neighborhoods were added Wednesday to the Health Department's areas of concern, though they have not yet reached the "alarming" rate of 10 New York City neighborhoods where positivity rates have spiked above 3 percent.

Those 10 Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods, now including Fresh Meadows/Hilcrest, are part of coronavirus clusters that have prompted a ramp up in testing and enforcement of coronavirus rules in the last week.

The city's overall 14-day positivity rate was at 1.43 percent Wednesday. The daily New York City rate had spiked to a months-long high of 3 percent on Tuesday, largely because of the neighborhood-level upticks.

In the Windsor Terrace ZIP code, the positivity rate's 14-day average reached 2.79 percent Wednesday, which includes an increase of .07 percent from the previous day.

The ZIP code borders two neighborhoods, Borough Park and Midwood, that are part of the Southern Brooklyn cluster of coronavirus upticks. Both of those neighborhoods have outpaced the citywide average by 3.7 times over the past 14 days, health officials said.

City officials first warned of a coronavirus surge in Borough Park in August, when they began sending the Test and Trace Corps to the neighborhood.

The city also recently started fining New Yorkers who refused to wear masks after being offered one and have started checking up on private schools throughout the areas of concern.

Here are the 14-day average positivity rates for all 17 neighborhoods of concern as of Wednesday:
10 Neighborhoods With Rates Above 3 Percent

• Edgemere/Far Rockaway (11691): 4.74%
• Gravesend/Homerest (11223): 6.9%
• Midwood (11230): 5.62%
• Borough Park (11219): 6.51%
• Bensonhurst/Mapleton (11204): 6.31%
• Gerritsen Beach/Homecrest/ Sheepshead Bay (11229): 4.13%
• Flatlands/Midwood (11210): 4.66%
• Kew Gardens (11415): 3.29%
• Kew Gardens Hills/Pomonok (11367): 3.68%
• Fresh Meadows/Hillcrest (11366): 3.08%

Seven Neighborhoods With Rates Between 2 and 3 Percent

• East Williamsburg/ Williamsburg (11211/ 11249): 2.06%
• Bedford-Stuyvesant (West)/Clinton Hill/Fort Greene (11205): 2.07%
• Kensington/Windsor Terrace (11218): 2.79%
• Brighton Beach/Manhattan Beach/Sheepshead Bay (11235): 2.97%
• Crown Heights (East) (11213): 2.30%
• Rego Park (11374): 2.66%
• Hillcrest/Jamaica Estates/Jamaica Hills (11432): 2.69%