54 NYC ZIP codes have COVID positivity rates over 10%

NEW YORK - Startling new numbers show that 54 ZIP codes across the five boroughs have COVID positivity rates above 10%.

South Brooklyn has been hit especially hard, specifically in Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Sheepshead Bay.

"It's definitely alarming because some ZIP codes are as high as 17% and that's way too high in terms of controlling the spread of the infection and the cases," said Dr. Pruvi Parikh of NYU Langone.

Dr. Parikh, who worked on the Pfizer vaccine trial, warns New Yorkers not to just focus on getting vaccinated.

"I think the issue is a lot of people are getting tired, they are getting pandemic fatigue, unfortunately letting hteir guard down. The other issue too is because it's winter, people are spending more time indoors and that helps the virus spread faster," Dr. Parikh said.

Some are asking why there is no looming lockdown in areas with rising positivity rates when, just a few months ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to shut down neighborhoods where positive test rates topped 4%. Instead, the state has recently shifted to using hospitalizations as its main metric for shutdown orders.

"I think, short of the variant really taking over here, we probably won't see more legal restrictions, but I would say we need to message more aggressively to tell people voluntarily that this is a time to stay closer to home, to really limit activities outside of the home that aren't essential," said City Councilman Mark Levine.

As of Sunday, the city's rolling 7-day positivity rate was 8.82%.