Coronavirus Rates Still Elevated In Crown Heights, Data Shows

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN —Coronavirus rates are still elevated in some Crown Heights ZIP codes nearly two months after the neighborhood was put on a watchlist by health officials, new data shows.

Data released this week — which is updated daily with weekly COVID-19 testing results for every New York City ZIP code — shows that two out of three ZIP codes encompassing Crown Heights remain above a 2 percent positivity rate, a marker set in September for a potential surge.

The 2-percent threshold has since been surpassed by just about half of the city's ZIP codes as the city as a whole faces an increase in the percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive.

In Crown Heights, positivity rates were similar this week in the eastern portion of the neighborhood as they were in September, when the ZIP code was first added to the watchlist. Back then, the city was considering a localized lockdown in the 11213 ZIP code.

The 11213 ZIP had a 2.34 percent positivity rate between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7, up by .29 percent from the seven-day average just a day before.

But the highest positivity rate in the neighborhood is now found in the western ZIP code, 11225, where 2.53 percent of tests came back positive between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7.

Here is the COVID-19 testing data in all three of Crown Heights' ZIP codes between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7:

• 11225 — Crown Heights (West)/Prospect Lefferts Gardens: 40 positive cases, 2.53 percent positivity
• 11213 — Crown Heights (East): 35 positive cases, 2.34 percent positivity
• 11216 — Bedford-Stuyvesant (West)/Crown Heights (West): 24 positive cases, 1.46 percent positivity

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that the city would resurrect the release of ZIP Code-specific COVID-19 data. The city had stopped publishing it to avoid confusion with the state's geographically-based color-coded "zones."

The zones in Brooklyn were modified on Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

De Blasio said worrying signs that the coronavirus is reasserting itself prompted officials to bring back the ZIP Code data, with some tweaks, to help inform New Yorkers.

The overall positivity rate has also continued to climb, hitting an average of 2.31 percent over the last week in New York City as of Tuesday.