COVID-19: Clusters

At least 15 new coronavirus deaths and 836 new cases were reported in New York on Sept. 28. Over the past week, there have been an average of 856 cases per day, an increase of 22 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

The overall number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York City is going up in specific neighborhoods. Officials are fighting to combat rising infection rates that portent a more widespread transmission. Recently, outbreaks of cases in Brooklyn, Queens and in Rockland and Orange counties are also fueling heightened concern -- to a degree Gov. Andrew Cuomo said makes it the "largest cluster" the state has addressed. "We have at this point a cluster problem. A cluster problem is caused by lack of compliance," Cuomo said Tuesday. "Why was there lack of compliance? Because the local government failed to do its compliance job. If you do not now control and attack the cluster, you have community spread. We're not there yet."

* New York reported 25,470 total statewide deaths of New Yorkers who tested positive for COVID-19.

* There were 2 more fatalities in New York yesterday.

* For more numbers, including the latest statewide and borough-by-borough statistics, click here.

Also, state hospitalization rates have risen for more than a week and rates of infection are rising statewide to roughly the level last seen in July. Ongoing clusters within Hasidic Jewish communities in New York City, Orange County and Rockland County are driving the increases, according to the latest state data, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo says means there is no need to immediately implement a new round of social distancing restrictions statewide unless the clusters lead to broader community spread in the upcoming days.

New York City schools are reopening Tuesday for schools that teach kindergartners through eighth-graders, but they might not stay that way for long. Ongoing clusters of cases in Brooklyn and Queens have pushed the citywide rate of positive tests to 3% in the past day, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Tuesday. A rate that high over a seven-day period would exceed the benchmark for closing schools down that the mayor set weeks ago. There are no plans at this point to delay the upcoming Oct. 1 reopening of city high schools, de Blasio said, but with cases surging and the governor saying it is ultimately his call, in-person learning at city elementary, middle and high schools is at risk.

#RepresentNYC, NY City Council Member Mark Levine sits down with MNN producer Victoria Bert to discuss #testing sites for #COVID19 and reopening the Fall.

Also, the effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus in nine the New York City ZIP codes involves 350 people, 11 community organizations, seven sound trucks, new fines, and lots of ramped-up testing.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced today, he will meet with Orthodox Jewish leaders to address COVID-19 clusters in communities downstate. He said at a Tuesday press conference that he would meet with leaders of the Orthodox Jewish community Tuesday to press them to urge more people to wear masks and abide by existing restrictions, which the governor said local governments are tasked with enforcing.

"I'm going to be meeting with religious leaders of the Orthodox community and local officials. If you look at those clusters and you look at those zip codes, you will see there's an overlap with large Orthodox Jewish communities. That is a fact. I will be meeting with them to talk about it. This is a public health concern for their community. It's also a public health concern for surrounding communities. I've said from day one, these public health rules apply to every religion, atheists - it just applies to every citizen of the State of New York, period," Governor Cuomo said. "We have seen hotspots before, but this is probably the largest cluster that we have addressed before, and the clusters are Brooklyn, Orange, Rockland. The activity in the cluster is very different than what's going on in the rest of the state. That's actually good news in some ways because you have effectively identified the genesis of the potential growth of the virus. Once you have the information, you aggressively target these clusters. These are embers that are starting to catch fire in dry grass. Send all the firefighting equipment and personnel to those embers and stamp out the embers right away. That's what this data does. Local governments are the first line of defense and they must respond. Competent government must do compliance and enforcement. A cluster today can be community spread tomorrow."

The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

COVID19 BY THE NUMBERS

New York state

25,470 – The number of people who have died after testing positive for the coronavirus, as of Sept. 29. There were 2 deaths on Sept. 28, and there were 4, 6 and 11 deaths on the three preceding days.

457,649– People who have tested positive for the coronavirus, as of Sept. 29. There were 1,189 positive tests on Sept. 28.

10,649,353– The number of people who have been tested for coronavirus in New York state, as of Sept. 29.4,672,822 of the tests have been conducted in New York City.

571– The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus on Sept. 28. There were 527, 541 and 543 hospitalizations on the three preceding days.

147 – The number of patients in intensive care units on Sept. 28. There were 164, 155 and 135 ICU patients on the three preceding days.

New York City

16,434– Number of confirmed coronavirus deaths of New York City residents reported by the state, as of Sept. 29. The city reported 23,814 deaths, including 19,183 confirmed deaths and 4,631 probable deaths, as of Sept. 29.

243,595 – Confirmed number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, as of Sept. 29. There were 523 positive tests on Sept. 28.

Travel Advisory

The governor also announced that Colorado has been added to New York State's COVID-19 travel advisory. Arizona and Virginia have been removed. The advisory requires individuals who have traveled to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days. The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

The full, updated travel advisory list is below: Or Read the full list here.