reopen ny

Gov. Cuomo says new plan can reduce spread in coronavirus hot zones

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Gov. Cuomo announces micro-cluster strategy for COVID hot zones

Diana Rocco reports on the state's new plan to fight the spread of coronavirus.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a bold, new strategy to crackdown on the coronavirus in New York.

The new block-by-block approach will target what he calls COVID "micro-clusters."

Cuomo says the new plan can reduce the spread in hot zones.

A church in Kew Gardens will not be holding mass Sunday morning, with a sign on the door that says "it's closed" because it's in a hot zone area.

Meanwhile the State Department of Health had to issue a cease-and-desist order to stop a wedding in Williamsburg where more than 10,000 people were planning to attend that was scheduled for Monday.

The new method of targets the virus by block instead of county or borough in the hot zones. They will use red, orange and yellow to show where the virus is most concentrated by case and enforce closures or roll backs that way.

Josh Einiger has more on the rules and restrictions that take effect on Thursday in New York City COVID cluster zones.

Right now, the state wide positivity rate stands at 1.1% in the nine problem area zip codes in Brooklyn and Queens. It's over 4% on average, but in some of the red zones it's actually much higher.

Churches inside the red zone are allowed to open at 25% capacity. Some have decided to just remain closed.

The Brooklyn and Queens Diocese filed a lawsuit against the state asking for increased capacity higher than 25%, which was denied.

WATCH: Eyewitness to a Pandemic

It overwhelmed the health care industry, it put millions out of work, it drowned social services in an ocean of need and threatened the food supply Americans had long since taken for granted. At the apex of the crisis and for the weeks that followed, no part of life, or even what followed life, was spared.