Covid-19 Uptick in Bklyn & Queens
Dear Editor:
We are writing to provide an update on several COVID-19 signals in Brooklyn and Queens that are cause for significant concern. Moreover, this situation will require further action if noncompliance with safety precautions is observed.
For weeks we have been closely monitoring signals in neighborhoods that have seen growth in COVID-19. These are in Williamsburg (2%), Kew Gardens (2.24%), Edgemere-Far Rockaway (3.69%) and a section of Brooklyn including Midwood, Borough Park and Bensonhurst (4.71%).
It is now clear that these signals in the south of Brooklyn have coalesced into one cluster we are calling the Ocean Parkway Cluster.
The four areas saw a large increase in cases from the week ending 8/1/2020 to the week ending 9/19/2020.
- 3 of 4 areas have tripled in that time (Ocean Parkway, Far Rockaway, and Williamsburg)
- 1 of 4 has doubled in that time period (Kew Gardens)
This increase has led to the four areas above making up 20% of all cases citywide as of 9/19/20.
At this point in time, these increases could potentially evolve into more widespread community transmission and spread to other neighborhoods unless action is taken. We are monitoring the situation for the need to take further steps in these areas.
We will have more to say in the days ahead, however, our guidance to community members is as urgent as it has ever been:
- Large indoor gatherings must be avoided.
- New York State law requires face coverings be worn by everyone older than two-years-old when in public if unable to maintain at least 6 feet of distance from others. Hands must be washed frequently and anyone who is ill must stay home. Anyone who has been exposed to COVID-19 must safely separate from others. Anyone who can’t safely separate at home is able to receive accommodations or additional resources from the city.
- All New Yorkers should get tested for COVID-19. To find a testing site go to nyc.gov/covidtest or call 311. In addition, please answer the phone if you get a call from NYC Test+Trace, which will be from a phone number beginning with 212-540-XXXX or 212-242-XXXX.
- New Yorkers should not use antibody test results to determine whether to return to school or work. Past infection does not guarantee protection from being infected again. In addition, a test should not be used to stop following quarantine precautions. If someone is identified to be a close contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19, they must stay home for the required 14 days, regardless of a negative diagnostic or antibody test.
Thank you for sharing our deep concern for our City’s families, friends and neighbors. We urge all New Yorkers to do their part to help us keep COVID-19 at bay.
Sincerely
Patrick Gallahue
NYC Health Dept Press Office
A Mob is a Mob is a Mob
Dear Editor:
Terrorism is “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population…in furtherance of political or social objectives.” Sound familiar? It’s a fancy way of describing the BLM mob’s assault on our fragile democracy, shoving their gimme gimme or else, agenda down our throats. “Black lives matter was a noble phrase when it signified a demand for justice for blacks. Tragically, it since has been perverted. What once had been a movement of peaceful protest has descended into wanton violence and lawlessness that have taken their greatest toll among the most vulnerable low-income communities,”-Robert L. Woodson, veteran civil rights activist.
BLM’s leaders admit they want to abolish the nuclear family, police, prisons and capitalism, openly threaten to “burn down the system” if their demands are not met, and call looting justifiable “reparations.” This mob has in effect, sanctioned the shooting of police officers and deputies. Los Angeles-BLM ambushed and shot two deputies while seated in their cars, then stormed the emergency room trying to get in to finish their kill, yelling, “That’s why you’re dying one by one…Y’all gonna die one by one. This ain’t gonna stop.” New Jersey-two gunmen fired six rounds on the home of two police officers and their newborn baby; two bullets penetrated the front door. It was at least the fourth incident involving law enforcement officers coming under attack in the past week. A 17 yr. old was arrested in Phoenix for opening fire on two Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers. This comes less than 48 hours after someone fired at a police officer driving a patrol car in Suffolk, Virginia.
This is now Civil War while we cower in fear of being labeled a “racist” if we object to BLM’s terrorism. The poor and middle class will continue to bear the brunt of this outrage. They always do.
Sincerely
Morris Tetrovsky
Running From Scared
Dear Editor:
Michelle Obama, “ White Americans are “still running” from minority communities when they move to another neighborhood.” Really? “Academic liberals, civil rights advocates, blame the exodus on racism, ‘white flight’ to the suburbs to avoid blacks. But blacks have been fleeing some cities at higher rates than whites. The five cities whose suburbs have the fastest-growing black populations are Miami, Dallas, Washington, Houston and Atlanta. It turns out that blacks, like whites, want better and safer schools for their kids and don’t like to be mugged or have their property vandalized. And like white people, if they have the means, black people cannot wait to leave troubled cities….Some of the most dangerous big cities are: St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Newark, Buffalo and Philadelphia, all of them run by liberal Democrats. In many of these cities, blacks are mayors, often they dominate city councils, and are chiefs of police and superintendents of schools.”
“Democratic controlled cities have the poorest quality public education despite their large, and growing, school budgets. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s math exam. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math.” Failed Black leadership has done little else other than point fingers at everyone, instead of doing the hard work of securing better funding, creating mentoring programs for inner city schools, demanding change and responsibility for a community’s tolerance of criminality as a way of life.
Shelby Steele, Sr. Fellow, Hoover Institution, “Our families have fallen to pieces: 75% of all black children are born out of wedlock, without a father. I don’t care how many social programs you have. You’re not going to overcome that. That’s where we, as black Americans, have to begin to take our fate back into our own hands…stop crying racism. There’s a little racism out here, always was, and always will be. Why is that an argument to stop, to not move forward, to not be responsible for your own fate?”
Perhaps Michelle should listen to her own husband who said, “a more perfect United States required African Americans taking full responsibility for our own lives…by demanding more from our fathers, spending more time with our children, reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.”
Sincerely
Austin McClellan
