Reopen NYC: Sheriff busts raves in Brooklyn neighborhood seeing spike in COVID cases

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Illegal raves broken up in NYC neighborhood seeing spike in COVID cases

At one of the parties, more than 180 people had gathered indoors.

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The New York City Sheriff's Office busted two illegal raves early Sunday in a Brooklyn neighborhood which has seen a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

The sheriff posted photos on Twitter showing deputies seizing alcohol from a party on 47th Street near Belt Parkway in which over 180 people had gathered indoors.

The sheriff also posted photos of deputies breaking up another rave just four blocks away on 51st Street near 2nd Avenue where more than 100 people had gathered inside.

The organizers of both parties were charged with breaking alcohol beverage control laws and local emergency law in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Organizers of the 47th street rave also were hit with drug possession charges.

The busts come just days afterMayor Bill de Blasio announced that there was an uptick of positive coronavirus cases inSunset Park, where both raves took place.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that there has been an uptick of positive coronavirus cases in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The uptick of 228 cases was found by doing hyper-local testing through the Test & Trace Corps.

"We now have a warning light," de Blasio said.

The positive results came from 3,380 neighborhood residents tested over two weeks and represent a 6.7% positivity rate, compared to the citywide average of around 1%.

The city is now offering expanded testing capacity, door knocking, and increased phone calls in the neighborhood and two mobile testing units were set up in the area.

"This is a neighborhood of about 38,000 households, and it's an area that we can saturate to get people tested as quickly as possible," de Blasio said.

The goal is to get all 38,000 households in Sunset Park tested.

Mayor Bill de Blasio says there will be additional testing for people in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

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