New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city is targeting six neighborhoods that have seen recent upticks in coronavirus cases, with an emphasis on expanded testing and contact tracing.
As part of its “Get Tested Tuesday” initiative, the city is now focusing its hyperlocal response on Borough Park, Kew Gardens, Midwood, Far Rockaway, Flatbush, and Williamsburg.
“We have some other areas where we need to really focus more, and we’re going to see expanded community outreach efforts in some neighborhoods where we are seeing some upticks,” de Blasio said. “We need to apply a lot of energy and focus to these areas. You’re going to see a lot of activity in the community to remind people of the basics, how important it is what we call the core four things that you can do. That makes such a difference, wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands, and stay home if you’re sick.”
The neighborhoods will have increased robocalls and WhatsApp messages, communications with houses of worship, distribution of hand sanitizer and more testing. Sound trucks will broadcast messages in the neighborhoods, as well.
(Source: WABC)
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13 Responses
According to the above information I feel that if indoor minyanim will be allowed on Yom Kippur it may even be worse then Yom KiPurim. I plead with anyone and everyone that has any power to influence others or any political connections to make a ban on any indoor minyanim. I can’t see a bigger zchus. While I believe that many people that are davening indoors are responsible and well meaning but because of a few that might not, I think it’s best for the government to ban it.
Please note if you are a member of BLM-then you are exempt
Cmon give a break let us live in peace
The anti semite is specifically targeting Jewish communities. Is it sudenly his business to keep us healthy and alive?! Chutzpah!
As Rabbi Ben Stern said, “I told you not to be stupid, you moron.”
Data of Borough Park 33 cases in average a week in the last four weeks!
https://github.com/nychealth/coronavirus-data/blob/master/recent/recent-4-week-by-modzcta.csv
People in these neighborhoods that were NOT exposed to those with the virus are being contacted by contact tracers. The system has no credibility.
So much for all the “enlightened” segements who were screaming all along about “the Chassidim” having outbreaks. This thing runs the full gamut of Orthodox Jewery.
Interesting. At this site, https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page#download, you can see the breakdown of cases by zip codes. Note that almost every area in the Bronx is dealing with close to or higher percentages than the Jewish areas that have been targeted. I really don’t believe that those areas are all inhabited by high numbers of frum people. Are these the people that went to beach parties on Labor Day with no regard to social distancing? Probably. Are these the people whose “lives matter”? Probably. But are they getting called out? Not on your life. Once again, out mayor has decided to avoid calling out the communities that might cause trouble, and has instead focused on his favorite scapegoats. Sure there are people in our communities that are flaunting their disrespect for the mandates designed to keep us all safe, but if you are going to point a finger at us, than let him use some of his other fingers as well. Maybe there should be a concerted effort to make calls to the 311 system, the mayor’s office, and the governor, to enlighten them to the truth of what is really happening with the covid cases in New York City.
Jews just don’t care to follow the rules of the Medina. Shame. Chillul Hashem, WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT. ???
I think there has to be more communication with schools and medical personnel (pediatricians, pharmacists etc).
People take it as a light suggestion to wear masks and maintain distance and fail to understand the very serious risk each and every time this is not followed.
Hi, “Stevenn” do you actually live in Borough Park? you sound uninformed. The city easily gets histerical over a relatively small amount of positive cases in a community of hundreds of thousands. It seems that if high risk individuals take care of themselves by wearing a mask and keeping out of crowded places, There will be no danger. This is also why there hasn’t been as many critical cases as before, because the people who are catching it are people who think theres nothing to worry about, and they’re most often right, at least cocerning the danger to themselves. Dr. Ahron Glatt said (quoted on CBS/880) that the uptick wouldn’t cause a spread anywhere out of the mostly insular Orthodox community, so that shouldn’t be a big consideration. I think the focus should be on making sure high risk individuals protect themselves, keeping weddings a moderate size (doesn’t need to be 50 but 500 may indeed be a risk), and educating people about getting tested and/or quarantining after coming from or visiting viral hotspots, because that also seems to have been a cause of the recent uptick. Remember that Hatzalah of Borough Park reportedly didn’t transport a COVID patient for about 4 months, during which there was practically no masks or social distancing in Borough Park, even though there were some unfortunately during the recent uptick. That means there is some sort of heard immunity, something which isn’t properly acknowledged by the mainstream media or even government officials, because they simply don’t have a proper understanding or how densly populated Orthodox communities work. How about sending a contact tracer to follow someone who Davened Shacharis in Landau’s in Flatbush, Mincha in Shomrei Shabbos in Borough Park, and Maariv in Satamar in Lakewood. Lets assume he doesn’t remember exactly what time each Tefilla was, just that it was sometime during the busiest hour of each one. If you do contact tracing even 2 days later, you would have 500,000 people being asked to quarantine. Thats how the virus spread in the beginning, and now, although there is still a danger and a lot of unknowns, there may be some sort of “wall” based on the immunity from the first outbreak, preventing a huge epidemic size outbreak from simply allowing Shuls to remain opened. All that said, people should continue to follow current recommendations, especially if they come from within the community, such as Hatzalah, or local doctors and Rabbanim and also continue keeping their ears open for new developements or recommendations.
Don’t cry over spilled milk. Masks would have helped way back in January and February.