Cuomo Lifts Many NYC Coronavirus ‘Red Zone’ Restrictions
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NEW YORK CITY — Coronavirus case levels in problematic local Brooklyn and Queens hotspots improved enough to lift many “red zone” closures in the neighborhoods, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.
Cuomo said the improvements allow the state to adjust or eliminate tiered, color-coded red, orange and yellow zones in the boroughs.
Simply put, coronavirus case surges largely slowed after Cuomo instituted the zones around so-called “micro clusters.”
“What it shows is it is working,” he said.
Schools and non-essential businesses will remain closed in Brooklyn’s nearly two-week-old red zone, Cuomo said. But numbers in its roughly five-block orange “buffer” zone have improved enough to shift it to a yellow zone, meaning schools and businesses can reopen.
Two clusters in central Queens and Far Rockaway fared much better. All red and orange zones have been wiped off the map in those areas, which are now yellow zones.
Yellow zones still keep many restrictions — such as 50 percent capacity limits on houses of worship and mandatory weekly testing in schools — but keep schools and businesses largely open.
Cuomo outlined the steps by which areas can exit the red, orange and yellow zones.
To exit a red zone, the coronavirus positivity rate must stay under 3 percent after 10 days, Cuomo said. The rates for orange and yellow zones are 2 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, after 10 days.
Click here for more information on the cluster zones.
The city’s COVID zone finder can be found here.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch
