The daily positivity rate is above 3% in New York City for the first time in months, according to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
However, the city uses the seven day rolling average to determine if schools should close. That number stands at 1.38% citywide which is below the mark for school closures.
The daily positivity rate is 3.25% which is under the threshold of five percent. Nine zip codes with a serious problem are impacting the overall daily number according to the mayor who notes these are nine out of 146 zip codes in the city, but it’s still a “cause for real concern,” he said Tuesday.
“We have to be on high alert to make sure we fight back this challenge,” said the mayor.
The mayor provided the other daily metrics the city uses.
There were 71 admitted to hospitals with suspected cases of Covid-19 which is under the 200 threshold, but the confirmed positive rate is 16.4%.
There are 338 new positive cases, which is under the threshold of 550.
“This is an inflection point. We have to take more action at this point and more serious action and we will be escalating with each day depending on what we see happening on the ground and the test results we are getting,” said de Blasio.
Anyone not wearing a face covering will be offered one and anyone who refuses will be reminded they can be fined. If they still refuse, they will be fined starting today.
Private schools and child care centers will close if they do not meet the Department of Education standards.
Dr. Mitch Katz, President and CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals public system and who is from South Brooklyn, said the city is going to have to take action if it is not able to decrease the infections.
Testing capacity will be increased by tomorrow with 11 mobile testing sites moved to the zip codes affected.
Rapid testing capacity will be added tomorrow at community provider offices in Orthodox communities and at three Health and Hospital locations – one in Queens and two in Brooklyn.
At least 350 personnel will be on the ground starting today including those form the Test and Trace corps and the city is conducting robocalls.
Remember: These numbers were released by the city’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.