Midtown, Hell's Kitchen COVID Rates Drop Steeply As Omicron Slows
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — More than a month after the contagious omicron variant began sweeping the city, COVID-19 rates in Midtown and Hell's Kitchen are moving in an unmistakable direction: down.
During the seven-day period that ended Friday, 964 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the five ZIP codes that span Hell's Kitchen and Midtown: a positivity rate of 9.6 percent.
While that's far higher than the figures seen in the city during most of 2021, it is a sharp drop from the previous few weeks. In the week ending Jan. 1, for example, the positivity rate in the same five ZIP codes was 24.1 percent.
The downward trend also appears to be holding for hospitalizations and deaths. In the past 28 days, a total of 171 residents of Midtown and Hell's Kitchen have been hospitalized with COVID-19, according to city data. Five people have died: all in the 1022 ZIP code in Midtown East.
During the most recent week, the 10022 ZIP code also had the highest overall positivity rate, at 10.2 percent. Hell's Kitchen's 10018 was lowest, at 7.42 percent. It is a stark turnaround for the neighborhood, which was among the hardest-hit areas in New York during the early days of omicron.
After an initial period of cautious optimism when rates began dropping in early January, leaders are now talking openly about the encouraging trends.
"We've dropped significantly in the last couple weeks," Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday, announcing that the statewide positivity rate had dropped below 10 percent for the first time since Dec. 20.
Still, Hochul said, "We are not letting our foot off the pedal until we can declare that we are in a place where we can manage without all the restrictions we put in place."
Elsewhere in the U.S., hospitals are being overwhelmed by a surge in patients caused by omicron, as Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Muthy said last week that the variant still has not peaked nationwide.
This article originally appeared on the Midtown-Hell's Kitchen Patch
