By Carol Tannenhauser
Manhattan’s high vaccination rates aren’t protecting it from infections by the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, according to data released by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, reported by amNY.
And some of the highest case counts are on the Upper West Side.
“Five Manhattan communities were among the eight New York City neighborhoods with 100 or more new COVID-19 infections between March 18-24. Topping the list was Manhattan Valley/Morningside Heights/Upper West Side (10025), which saw 177 new cases and a 4.4% 7-day positivity rate.
“The other Manhattan areas with 100 or more new cases were Lincoln Square (10023, 123 new cases, 4.42% 7-day positivity); Upper West Side (10024, 123 new cases, 5.38% positivity); Kips Bay/Murray Hill/NoMad (10016, 107 new cases, 5.67%); and East Village/Gramercy/Greenwich Village (10003, 106 new cases 5.14%).”
“The subvariant is highly contagious, but does not appear to cause more severe illnesses, nor is it vaccine resistant,” according to the report.
And the bars in 20024 appear to be packed. And the vax mandate for indoor dining has been lifted. Not to mention the mask mandate for schools. Is it any wonder case counts are up?
We’s apparently like to think that the pandemic is finito. But it’s not over till it’s over, folks.
No matter when covid restrictions are lifted, covid cases would rise. It’s simple probability.
The questions are:
After the initial surge, will cases then fall again?
And even then, does the more infectious but much milder covid these days warrant closing down everybody’s life?
Give it up already…this is now endemic, so no need to give weekly updates.
Covid is still pandemic.
No, it isn’t endemic and in fact there is thinking from epidemiologists that the mildness of Omicron is a fluke. Also, read about long covid.
If you’re not vaccinated and/or boosted Omicron is far from mild. Just look at Hong Kong, where among the elderly, the vaccination rates are low and death rates are high. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/3-charts-show-why-hong-kong-is-suffering-the-deadliest-omicron-wave-in-the-world-right-now/ar-AAVbvlu
It’s NOT endemic yet. We would have to go for a longer period of time in which the virus was no longer infecting people in the US – and then have it return in season. THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED YET. There has been no period of abatement yet in 2 years for 4 months.
sg, what is wrong with you?! How dare you be snarky about the wonderful West Side Rag which regularly protects all of us by providing important information??I suggest you cancel your subscription and go pick on someone else.
Ditto!!
Read up on long COVID
People who are vaccinated do not tend to get long COVID Long COVID is almost entirely prevaccination or the unvaccinated
Well it didn’t take much time at all to lure the armchair epidemiologists out of retirement.
This isn’t school; it’s not mandatory reading Other readers are interested in updates about the new variant but if you aren’t, then don’t read them. People make gratuitous negative comments on this free blog to seemingly make themselves sound smarter and more important than they really are. They should “[g]ive it up already.”
Where is your degree in epidemiology from? I’ve not heard that from any other dr
From a personal risk perspective, isn’t the 7-day positivity rate a better factor than the number of new cases? If so, zips 10023 and 10025 are less at risk than the other Manhattan zips.
Your headline is clip bait to lure your readers. While it is true, a more accurate headline would be UWS doing a bit better than the rest of Manhattan.
Home testing is likely to be high in these, our ZIPCODES, and probably under-reported. So these statistics are likely to be under-estimates.
We should all be aware of the trend lines to adjust our own behaviors.
Ok. Here’s a link to the 7 day average from the official city site. 5.3% positive in 10024. Pretend it’s over if you want. I’ll wear a mask.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page
Who cares…the only thing that matters now are hospitalizations and deaths.
There are people walking around who’ve had this thing 2x in the last 3 months and 3x in a year, despite being 3x vaccinated.
Not true. Those people who suffer with diabetes, chronic lung issues, weakened immunity, HIV, Rheumatoid, and other genetic conditions are also at risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack, long covid, brain fog and other non-fatal outbreaks and flair.
Yes, but are they LESS sick than they would be otherwise?
Is there cross-protection between our vaccines&boosters for Omicron and Omicron BA.2?
i agree, and have wondered for 2 years why we keep reading about ‘cases’. I don’t care if people catch a cold, or the flu. I care (deeply) if they are hospitalized or die.
Agree! It’s unlikely that people who’ve been vaxed will die!
You are not correct, the last two people that I know who have died from Covid were fully vaccinated! Keep your mask on people. Our numbers are high because of things like the St Patrick’s day parade, what did we expect? Thousands of people gathered together with no mask. The vaccine does not prevent you from getting or spreading Covid
Yes, my source for the St Patrick day is ” Common Sense” thousands of people unmasked standing face to face. Wear your mask in large gatherings, it is just good old fashioned common sense.
Can you please cite your source for the St. Patrick’s Day parade (or any outdoor event) being a cause of the rise in cases? Every expert I regularly follow (Dr. Fauci, Dr. Wallensky, Andy Slavitt, Dr. Michael Olserholm) says outdoor events are not superspreader events. I would think that the rescinding of mask mandates in indoor spaces would be far more likely the ‘culprit’, but if you have other information, I’d love to read it.
Second this. Masks and social distancing. However great vaccines might be at lessening the chances of hospitalization and death, we shouldn’t preach vaccination as the only way to go.
Because case count increases is a presage to hospitalization and mortality increases. First case counts go up, then hospitalizations and deaths.
Gently correcting: Yes, people have to have a disease (a case in your parlance) in order to have any chance of serious symptoms – BUT vaccinations have plunged serious symptoms for those who choose to vaccinate to point of vanishing statistically. That’s why hospitalizations and not “cases” is the relevant metric for seriousness these days. Why care about numbers for covid more than numbers for flu?
Get your vaccines and boosters people.
NOT “just” about hospitalizations and death. Tell that to all the thousands of people suffering from Long COVID whose lives have completely changed and/or put on hold indefinitely with no cure. My sister has Long COVID for almost 1.5 years now and she’s been completely bedridden for the past year. So yeah, I kinda rather not get infected thanks!
The vaccines do not prevent transmission. According to CDC head Wallesnky: “”…what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission. They also can’t stop the infection from variants. If it could then you wouldn’t see these numbers. The only thing the vaccine may do is decrease the severity of the illness or hospitalization. But there has never been an RCT that has proven that. Please stop censoring the facts. It’s too important.
People seem to only like ‘science’ that supports their beliefs…………
Demonstrably false Bill. Shame on you.
This is not a real quote.
You can tell by the phrasing as well as the content.
Prove me wrong with a source and I’ll eat one of my shoes…like a sneaker or something, not an Italian wing tip or anything.:)
It is a real quote. It is from a CNN interview. Here is the entire quote:”In a segment on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, Walensky said that while the vaccines are doing very well to protect against serious illness and death, what they cannot do anymore is stop transmission.
“Our vaccines are working exceptionally well. They continue to work well for Delta with regard to sever illness and death. They prevent it,” Walensky said.
The following statement is more notable, however, as it is one of the only times the CDC has acknowledged that the vaccines are not capable of stopping the spread of the virus.
“Our vaccines are working exceptionally well. They continue to work well for Delta with regard to severe illness and death. They prevent it, what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission. So if you’re going home to somebody who has not been vaccinated, somebody who can’t get vaccinated… I would suggest you wear a mask in a public indoor setting,”
From a Wash Post article about the quote you keep citing:
“Anti-vaxxers and vaccine mandate opponents have willfully misused such comments…But there is a difference between eliminating transmission altogether and reducing it, which health officials would do well to emphasize.
Walensky, to her credit, was clear even in the same interview Sunday that it was the latter. She said that while there are more breakthrough infections these days, vaccinated people remain significantly less likely to contract the virus in the first place (in addition to having much better outcomes), and thus less likely to transmit it.”
Literally every trial that has been done has confirmed that the vaccines make an enormous difference in preventing hospitalization and death. And while they aren’t nearly as effective at preventing infection as they were with the original form of Covid, they still do lower the chances somewhat.
PLEASE don’t spread misinformation. And WSR, you don’t need to publish comments that spread lies. Opinions are one thing, but this comment is false information about vaccines.
Please post a link to one RCT with these results. The initial studies done by Moderna and Pfizer did look at reduction of severity of illness or of death.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7112e1.htm
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2115481
https://uncnews.unc.edu/2022/01/12/study-shows-covid-19-vaccines-offer-lasting-protection/
This is very useful information. Remember, that people still need Covid tests to travel to some parts of the world and it’s a great reminder to be doubly vigilant when cases are up in the neighborhood.
I wish we had much more data (locally and nationally) on how many new cases are and were breakthrough cases, esp since NYC has a high vax rate.
Covid is not going away. It’s endemic. The vaccines do not prevent infection. It’s time to focus on effective treatments.
WE SHOULD BE LOCKED DOWN IN OUR HOMES LIKE THEY DO IN SHANGHAI….THAT IS WHY CHINA IS #1 IN THE WORLD
As long as the restaurants/bars are open and crowded that seems to be all that matters.
Nobody is forcing you to go to bars and restaurants.
And daily average hospitalizations and deaths continue to decrease in NYC. Why is this even news? We really, and I mean REALLY, need to move on.
You just have NO idea. I know of people who two years after infection, are so ill, several of their systems are not functioning. They are suffering pain when breathing, glass lung, blood clots, Diabetes and constant pain throughout their body. The greatest reason for not getting infected is to AVOID LONG HAUL COVID and the completely debilitating symptoms. Your call.
But aren’t most of the long covid cases the result of infection before the vaccines? In other words, isn’t the likelihood of getting long covid very low if you’re vaccinated?
It’s not a coincidence that this is happening right after we let maskless children congregate in our schools. I fear for the safety of our teachers. Meanwhile our mayor is letting the unvaccinated play professional sports in crowded arenas, sending the absolute wrong message. I am doing my part by ordering items on Amazon and limiting exposure to humans.
“End fossil fuels now” is doing their part by…ordering items on Amazon. You just can’t make this stuff up. By all means, take all the credit you need.
Newsflash…the schools are THE place for maskless children to congregate, in case you didn’t know. But thanks for ‘letting’ them, quite magnanimous of you. What is the transmission rate from children to triple-vaxxed, masked teachers – any clue?
Keep freaking out about 100 cases in zipcodes with hundreds of thousands of residents and double that in daily visitors.
If its of any significance here, I heard that Shanghai is in lockdown over BA.2. Maybe this is because they have a lower vaccination rate and/or their vaccines are less effective.
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT now that mask mandates are being dropped?
(This is a rhetorical question. No replies required.)
I suggest we go back to lockdown and isolation.
At least for 2 weeks.
We need to flatten the curve.
Again.
These zip codes also test the most….. but it’s also why Adams is all wrong on covid policy.
Those zips test the most… but it also shows Adams’ is wrong on covid policy as well as crime and homeless policy.
Lifting mask mandates was definitely premature. Particularly at schools and children’s extracurricular activities.
Would have been helpful for amNY to put the new cases in context of each zip code’s population, if such information is available.
My child’s school, in 10025, went from 1 case, to 4 last week, to…14 today. It’s almost like you can see an exponential progression…
What I mostly got from the comments, which only confirmed my prior opinion, is that if someone does not agree with you, then that person is spreading misinformation and does not follow science. Way to go, UWSiders.
Exactly. If you want censored media, hop on over to Russia. Kudos to the WSR for publishing all opinions
The WSR doesn’t publish all opinions. I never post any obscenities but 30-40% of my posts don’t make it through. I haven’t figured out the pattern yet because sometimes they seem to want conflict, and sometimes inane and stupid stuff make it through.
I imagine it’s not that easy to moderate any forum, and meaningful discussions are difficult enough face to face. So I post mostly information and known facts with some snark sprinkled in for my own enjoyment.
Don’t worry the midterm elections are around the corner expect lock downs after the summer. And back to the Basement with Joe!
Personally, I still wear two masks, gloves. Have had one booster so three vaccines so far. I am so discouraged at the people not wearing masks on mass transit. I don’t want to get sick. I don’t want to have my brain or heart suffer from this, as I get older and look forward to retirement. I don’t want to pass this on, to anyone for any reason. I just want to live and be happy, and make others happy too.