High COVID-19 Positivity Rates In Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park And Corona Queens Have Officials Searching For Answers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - CBS2 is continuing to look at city neighborhoods with the highest COVID positivity rates and what's being done to stop the spread.
CBS2's Andrea Grymes visited two parts of Queens trying to get a handle on the virus.
Gavin Sugrim and his son Adam stood on line outside the Queens Public Library in Richmond Hill waiting for COVID tests.
"Someone actually in my household got tested and they were positive, so I started feeling a little bit feverish last night so... and so did he," Sugrim said.
Zip code 11419, covering Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park, has the highest positivity rate in all of Queens, at 15.81%.
It's the second highest rate in the five boroughs, according to the latest city numbers.
"The culture is older and I'm not sure if they quite understand the extent of how deadly this thing is, and sometimes they don't take the proper measurements," Sugrim said.
Queens was ground zero for the coronavirus pandemic in New York - especially Elmhurst Hospital, which in the beginning was completely overwhelmed.
Councilman Francisco Moya's district not only includes Elmhurst, but neighboring Corona. Corona's zip code 11368 has a 14.03% positivity rate.
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"We have multiple families living in a home, multiple generations that come in here," Moya said. "The majority of people that live in this area have also been essential workers."
Corona resident Christian Music was waiting for a test at a free city mobile site at 104th Street and 41st Avenue.
"Not enough testing at all," he said. "I had to walk 30 minutes because I live in South Corona and this is the closest to me."
Moya says they added a second van here because demand is so high. He says as we wait for COVID vaccine distribution, the city must do as much testing as possible.
The mobile testing vans will be out through Sunday from 8 a.m.-7 p.m., then next week they'll move to the First Baptist Church in East Elmhurst.
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