State will adjust restrictions as COVID cases drop in Queens red zones, Cuomo says

Gov Andrew Cuomo said positive COVID-19 test rates have decreased in Queens cluster zones over the past week. Photo via Governor’s Office

By David Brand

The state will adjust restrictions inside some COVID cluster zones, including parts of Queens, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

Cuomo did not provide specifics about the pending changes inside the red restriction zones, but said they could be done on a “block by block” level and will be announced Wednesday.

The test positivity rate has dropped by nearly a third — from 3.3 percent to 2.3 percent — in Queens’ two red cluster zones over the past week, he said. One zone is located in Central Queens and includes parts of Forest Hills and Kew Gardens Hills. The other covers much of Far Rockaway.

The COVID positivity rate has also decreased in clusters inside South Brooklyn, Rockland County and Orange County, though those rates remain significantly higher than in Queens’ zones, Cuomo said.

Cuomo has characterized the state’s new regulations as a “micro-cluster approach.” The strategy imposes stricter business closures and capacity limits in areas based on their proximity to a so-called cluster. 

He praised the intervention Monday for focusing the restrictions on the communities experiencing the sharpest illness increases. 

“The micro-cluster approach, first of all, targets the outbreak sooner and faster and tighter, and the restrictions are only neighborhood-wide,” Cuomo said. “Now, that neighborhood may not like it, but it's only a neighborhood. It's only a piece of Brooklyn. It's only a piece of Orange. It's only a piece of Rockland.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio also highlighted the declining rate of positive COVID-19 tests in the Central Queens rezone during his daily press briefing Monday.

“Those numbers have gotten substantially better. So, that's an area that we're pleased about” de Blasio said. “That's a good example to everyone else in the red and orange zones that we can turn this around and turn this around quickly with a strong united effort.”