Cuomo, Orthodox Leaders Plan Strategy to Tamp Down Clusters

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he’s developing a plan of action with leaders from the Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City and the suburbs to tamp down a handful of COVID-19 clusters that have popped up in recent days, driving up the state’s infection rate.

Those clusters, contained within 20 hotspot zip codes, reported 23% of the positive COVID-19 cases Tuesday, Cuomo said, despite only representing 6% of the state’s population.

So far, the clusters have been isolated to Orange and Rockland Counties and the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. One zip code in Rockland County reported a 17% positivity rate Tuesday, Cuomo said.

While the uptick hasn’t been exclusively attributed to the Orthodox Jewish community, Cuomo

said a significant share could be traced back to those individuals.

“I think it's fair to say the leaders of the community understand and they're going to take action and we're going to come up with an action plan,” Cuomo said. "I explained the situation frankly and candidly and we had a good exchange.”

That comes as hospitalizations from the coronavirus topped 600 in Wednesday’s numbers for the first time since July. Hospitalizations have been steadily increasing in recent days, though the number of deaths has held relatively steady, with nine reported Tuesday.

The statewide positivity rate in New York Tuesday, the latest numbers, was 1.02%, with 1,000 new cases diagnosed. The state has warned that a prolonged infection rate above 1% could exacerbate the spread of the virus.

The Mid-Hudson region, home to both Rockland and Orange Counties, reported the state’s highest infection rate, at 2.4%. Of the state’s new cases, 110 were diagnosed in Rockland County.

Leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community said, according to Cuomo, that the lack of compliance with state orders among members of their community — including social distancing and face coverings — could be attributed to three things.

For one, some support President Donald Trump, who some have accused of downplaying the severity of the virus in the past, Cuomo said. Some also believe in herd immunity, the idea that the disease will disappear if enough people contract it and recover.

But the third factor, according to Cuomo, is a lack of enforcement from local governments and police on things like social gatherings and face coverings. Cuomo, who’s railed against local governments in recent weeks on the same issue, agreed.

"The local governments' failure to not enforce the law has exacerbated this problem. They've made it worse, not better," Cuomo said. "I understand the sensitivities to this political environment ... You know what makes people really unhappy? Dying."

New York isn’t to the point where the state’s reopening would be rolled back, Cuomo said. There is currently no metric for when that would happen, but Cuomo has warned in the past of future lockdowns if there happens to be a spike of the disease.