As Vaccinations Begin in New York, COVID-19 Positivity Rates, Hospitalizations, Deaths Continue to Climb

By Yehudit Garmaise 

   While New York City’s COVID positivity rate, which stood at 4.33% on Friday, continue to increase, Brooklyn’s rate, which was at 4.33%, was the borough with the second lowest rate before Shabbos. 

   At 2.7%, Manhattan had the lowest rate, and followed by Brooklyn, and then the Bronx, was at 4.78%, Queen’s positivity rate was 4.8%, and Staten Island showed the highest rate at 5.3%.

     After the number of patients with COVID-19 in New York state who are hospitalized and in intensive care units briefly decreased on Friday, today, the number increased again to 6,208.

  Also on Friday, sadly, 31 more people died in New York City of coronavirus, bringing the state’s death toll to 28,474.

  The good news is that the Pfizer vaccine, which was the first one to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FD) has arrived, the Moderna vaccine was approved by FDA on Friday, and healthcare workers are already getting the shots that will change everything.

   “This is now a footrace between the vaccine and COVID,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in his e-mailed coronavirus update, “and as we slow the spread, we also have to accelerate vaccine distribution at the same time.

    “The faster we vaccinate people, the quicker new COVID cases go down.”

   More good news is that the healthcare workers who are administering the Pfizer vaccine have been able to get as many as six or seven doses from a single vial that was previously thought to have only five doses. 

   “That means that our supply of vaccine doses is actually bigger than we thought—and more people can be vaccinated during this early stage of the process,” said Gov. Cuomo, who added that he anticipates receiving 346,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine in New York state next week.