Ozone Park added to Queens’ COVID yellow zone following positive test spike

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Ozone Park is now included in the state’s yellow zone after a spike in the positive COVID test rate. Photo by Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

By David Brand

New York state has added Ozone Park to Queens’ yellow COVID precautionary zone after a rise in positive COVID-19 test rates over the past two weeks. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the increasing positive test rates in the neighborhood prompted the new designation, even as rates fell elsewhere in Queens. Cuomo on Wednesday removed school and business restrictions inside cluster zones in Central Queens and Far Rockaway. 

“We are also adjusting the Queens map to add in the Ozone Park neighborhood, which has seen an uptick in cases,” he said. “So, Ozone Park becomes a yellow zone and that is what it looks like.”

Cuomo and state COVID-19 Task Force member Gareth Rhodes said the state could not point to a specific reason for the increase in positive cases in the neighborhood, except that it was located near neighborhoods already included in the state’s watch list. The existing yellow zone was redrawn to include Ozone Park, he said. There was no known super-spreader event, Rhodes said.

A large swath of the borough is now classified as a yellow “buffer” zone in the state’s three-tiered restriction system, where different colors apply to different sets of rules.

Inside red “cluster” zones, schools and non-essential businesses were forced to close for two weeks, while gatherings inside houses of worship were capped at 10 people. Inside orange “warning” zones surrounding the clusters, some nonessential businesses were forced to close and capacity in houses of worship was capped at 25 people.

In the Central Queens cluster zone, concentrated in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, the rate is now about 2.5 percent, down from about 4.7 percent Oct. 6, Cuomo said. In the Far Rockaway cluster zone, the rate dropped from 3.7 percent to 1.8 percent. 

Cuomo said COVID test positivity rates had dropped below 3 percent for 10 consecutive days inside both locations, allowing the state to loosen restrictions. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday praised efforts to drive down COVID-19 cases in Central Queens. 

The state’s addition of Ozone Park to the yellow zone means the Department of Health and contract tracing corps will focus more resources in the area, de Blasio said.

“We'll get expanded outreach and testing into that area and we'll keep a close eye,” de Blasio said. “But overall, the situation in Queens we've seen some really good progress.”

The neighborhood lost a popular same-day testing site two weeks ago, the Queens Chronicle reported. Local leaders and Council candidates have called on the city and state to establish additional testing in Ozone Park.

Two weeks ago I fought to keep our #OzonePark testing center open at the library. I told @NYCHealthSystem, @NYCMayor and @NYGovCuomo that COVID would travel here and sadly I was right. We need a testing center back now. People need to have access to rapid testing.

— Felicia Singh for City Council (@FSingh_NYC) October 21, 2020