Upper East Side Coronavirus Rates Still Among NYC's Lowest

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — While coronavirus case numbers continue to rise across the city, rates remain relatively low on the Upper East Side, according to the latest testing data.

During the 7-day period that ended Saturday, the five ZIP codes covering the Upper East Side all ranked in the bottom fifth of all New York City ZIP codes by the percentage of COVID-19 tests that came back positive.

The citywide 7-day positivity rate stood at 5.51 percent Tuesday, but no Upper East Side ZIP code had a rate above 2.5 percent.

Still, the neighborhood's virus rates remain elevated compared to where they stood earlier this fall. In early October, none of the five Upper East Side ZIP codes had positivity rates above 1.18 percent.

Here is the COVID-19 testing data on the Upper East Side between Dec. 6 and Dec. 12:

• 10021 — Lenox Hill/Upper East Side: 2,333 people tested, 55 positive cases, 2.36 percent positivity rate
• 10028 — Yorkville/Upper East Side: 2,271 people tested, 52 positive cases, 2.29 percent positivity rate
• 10065 — Lenox Hill/Upper East Side: 1,910 people tested, 42 positive cases, 2.2 percent positivity rate
• 10075 — Lenox Hill/Upper East Side: 1,331 people tested, 33 positive cases, 2.48 percent positivity rate
• 10128 — Yorkville/Upper East Side: 2,908 people tested, 57 positive cases, 1.96 percent positivity rate

As of Tuesday, the city's highest COVID-19 rates were in the Gravesend/Homecrest neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Ozone Park in Queens, and Midwood in Brooklyn. The highest in Manhattan was the 10002 ZIP code in Chinatown, where 6.34 percent of tests came back positive during the most recent 7-day period.

Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Tuesday that the coronavirus vaccine's arrival in New York City likely won't avert an upcoming shutdown similar to the spring clampdown after the pandemic struck.

He warned that the city's daily case numbers all point toward a lockdown, with about 2,813 new cases each day.

"They're going in the wrong direction," de Blasio said during his daily briefing. "We are just on the verge of a huge breakthrough of the vaccine, but we're also dealing with a second wave. We've got to beat it back, we got to protect lives and we've got to protect our hospitals."

Matt Troutman contributed to this report.

Related: Upper East Side Coronavirus Rates Remain Among Lowest In NYC