Latest On COVID-19 Rates, School Closures & Testing Sites

As COVID-19 rates continue to hover above 5% in hotspot areas throughout New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all nonessential businesses in red zones will close for 14 days, starting Oct. 8, with schools remaining closed until at least Oct. 21.

In yesterday’s press conference, Mayor de Blasio announced a new zone finder, in which people can go to nyc.gov/covidzone and type in any address to find out what is happening in that area, what restrictions are in place, and closure effects.

The site shows what ZIP codes are in the red, orange, and yellow areas, making it easy for anyone to get the correct data.

Mayor de Blasio tweeted today about NYC schools now requiring testing to be done once a month at district schools, with results coming back within two to three days. Testing will be done at random, selecting a group of staff and students from grades 1-12. The testing size will depend on the size of the school.

Although testing will be done at every school within the Department of Education, the state will be putting out their plan for a different approach in yellow areas.

“So, those schools that fall within those yellow zones, we’ll have weekly testing,” the Mayor said. “It’s a different effort entirely from what we just described, the ongoing monthly in every school, all over the city. The weekly testing just in the yellow zone schools will begin next Friday, not this Friday, next Friday, the 16.”

In order for children to get tested, parents must sign a COVID-19 testing consent form. So far, 169 schools have been closed for two weeks.

“For weeks now, we’ve been preparing for the medical monitoring that will be happening in every single New York City public school,” Mayor de Blasio said in yesterday’s press conference. “That will be happening monthly. I want to make very, very clear – all staff, all students, we need full participation. It is a requirement of being part of the in-person school community.”

1.14% of the 139,300 people who were tested yesterday, tested positive for COVID-19, with 779 hospitalizations. The positivity rate in hotspot ZIP codes as of today is at 5.4%.

There are currently six testing sites in Brooklyn and you can find them here.