New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided to slap a $1,000 fine on anyone not wearing a mask in six Brooklyn neighborhoods and one neighborhood in Queens.
The targeted neighborhoods are:
- Bensonhurst/Mapleton
- Borough Park
- Midwood
- Flatlands/Midwood
- Gerristen Beach/Homecrest/Sheepshead Bay
- Edgemere/Far Rockaway
- Kew Garden Hills/Pomonok
The affected ZIP codes, 11223, 11230, 11415, 11691, 11219, 11204, 11229, 11210, and 11367, represent seven percent of the city’s population, according to the New York Post.
De Blasio said in a news conference Tuesday that the city’s overall infection rate has risen to 3.25 percent — this, after months of holding steady at one percent — and he noted that clusters in the nine zip codes accounted for 25 percent of the coronavirus cases citywide.
The mayor also said he had spoken to Jewish community leaders during a Tuesday morning conference call about the issue.
“We have to take more action at this point and more serious action and we will be escalating with each day depending on what we see happening on the ground,” he said. City workers will be handing out masks to residents in the targeted areas, but if they refuse to wear them, they will be fined, the mayor said.
“We don’t want to fine people. If we have to, we will. That will be starting on a large scale today.”
There’s a bit more at stake here as well: the mayor has been in a battle with the principals’ union over whether to reopen schools this week, since 1,200 vacancies have yet to be filled. Both school administrators and teachers have raised intensive concerns over inadequate supplies of personal protective equipment and other issues as well — nevertheless, elementary schools opened on time Tuesday; middle schools and high schools are on track so far to reopen Thursday as well.
But in-person learning at the city’s public schools — which began this week — will be shut down if the seven-day COVID infection rate reaches three percent or higher, the Daily News reported.
As for non-public schools, according to NYC Health Commissioner Dr. David Chokshi, private schools that do not enforce mask use and social distancing regulations (six feet apart) will face closure, and will be kept under the watchful eyes of staff from the city’s Test & Trace Corps, the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement and the City Health Department.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, hit the roof over a combined five percent positive coronavirus test rate in a cluster of 20 zip codes statewide — many of which were centered in Orthodox Jewish areas in Brooklyn, and Orange and Rockland Counties. The rest of the state is still holding at a 1.1 percent positive test rate.
The hottest spot in the state appears to be Kiryas Joel in Orange County, with 19 percent of tests there coming back positive on Monday, according to the Daily News. Two unidentified zip codes in Rockland County registered at 10 percent and nine percent. Several in Brooklyn and Queens reported five percent positive rates.
Cuomo said he plans to meet with Orthodox Jewish leaders soon to form a specific response for the community.