Dear John
During our campaign, I heard at every single door that you wanted to see the district newsletter continue. Not just with updates about what’s going on in our community, but also the latest information about COVID-19. Now, during this horrific winter surge, that information is more important than ever.
COVID-19 Situation In New York City
The good news is that COVID-19 cases are trending down in New York City. Last week, the highest neighborhood positivity rate was over 40% and now it’s under 40%. We’re going from sky-high cases to still a very high caseload, but the situation is slowly improving. While more people are heading to the hospital, ICU capacity remains stable.
Over 6 million New York City residents have been fully vaccinated which is close to 74% of the entire City! I am super proud that our district is above that average, closer to 80%, but if you know someone who isn’t vaccinated, or needs a booster, now is the time. Especially if you have a child between 5 and 12! While our City and our district are well above the national average, only 30% of kids in New York City between 5 and 12 are fully vaccinated. Especially as kids return to school, it is more important than ever we get kids vaccinated to protect against COVID-19.
One last thing. I’m sure you’ve heard reports of a “flurona” or “deltracron” and thankfully there is no real science to back these up. While you can catch the flu and COVID-19 at the same time, there has been no evidence of the viruses mutating together or of a dual COVID-19 infection from more than one variant. This is one less thing to worry about but also a good reminder to get your flu shot!
Testing Locations
Our team has compiled a list of locations in and near the 39th district where you can find a safe, reliable, and, most importantly, free COVID-19 test. All the sites listed below are city-run Health & Hospitals sites which means no insurance is necessary to obtain a test. Given the overwhelming number of cases, we have some reports of people not receiving their results quickly enough so if that happens to you at one of these sites please email our office. Unlike the highly unregulated private testing sites, the City Council has significant oversight power over these city-run sites. When you let us know what went wrong, we have the power to fix it!
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I also want to mention that some residents have mentioned problems with H+H vans that have turned out not to be city-run. Pop-up testing vans have been using shady branding, like this one, to appear like city-run sites but remember city-run sites have bright colorful branding like this.
At-Home COVID-19 Testing Instructions Translated
A quick shout out to D39 resident Lisa Jackson Zelznick for sharing this amazing resource with us! If you, or anyone you know, needs at-home testing instructions translated, the provided link has seven of the top ten most spoken languages in NYC. We’re still on the lookout for resources in Yiddish, Tagalog, and Korean and will update you when we have them.
Stay safe and let us know if you need anything.
In Solidarity,
Council Member Shahana Hanif
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