MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-09-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Looks like the second wave is starting
|
https://www.timesofisrael.com/3-new-york-hasidic-jews-die-of-covid-19-as-cases-in-orthodox-communities-mount/
timesofisrael.com
3 New York Hasidic Jews die of COVID-19 as cases in Orthodox communities
mount
By Jacob Magid
5-6 minutes
Three members of the Hasidic Jewish community in New York City have died
of the coronavirus over the last four days alone, as several Orthodox
communities were flagged as hotspots amid a COVID-19 resurgence.
All three men were severely ill by the time they arrived at Maimonides
Medical Center in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, the New
York Post reported. They were pronounced dead hours after they were
admitted.
“There’s rampant COVID denialism and misinformation abound in the
community,” a person familiar with the matter told the Post. “People are
not getting tested and are refusing care even when sick. This is deeply
distressing.”
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The source said the victims were not all elderly, suggesting that the
latest outbreak is not only targeting the most vulnerable.
The Brooklyn hospital did not provide additional information, but
released a statement saying, “As has been reported, there has recently
been an increase in the number of patients with COVID-19.”
A woman walks out of a pharmacy in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough
Park on September 23, 2020 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty
Images/AFP)
Nearby Mount Sinai hospital in Midwood has also seen a spike in COVID-19
patients, with 40 admitted last week — up from 20 to 25, the Post reported
New York City has threatened drastic enforcement measures starting as
early as next Tuesday — the day after Yom Kippur — after days of warning
about rising COVID-19 cases in Orthodox neighborhoods.
The city was also planning to begin inspecting private schools in areas
with high infection rates to check that they are conforming to the
city’s rules, which include shutting down when there are two unrelated
cases in the same building.
The enforcement measures could include closing businesses and schools,
moves that would inflame already strained relations between the
communities and the city.
City officials and community leaders alike have expressed growing alarm
about the spread of the coronavirus in Orthodox communities, where six
neighborhoods contributed a fifth of the city’s new infections as of
September 19. Meanwhile, many people in those neighborhoods do not wear
masks in public, which the city requires when outdoors and distancing is
not possible, and continue to gather in large numbers.
In an email to reporters Thursday evening, Patrick Gallahue, a
spokesperson for the city’s health department, said that if progress in
slowing the spread of infection was not made by Monday evening, the city
would take serious action, including prohibiting all gatherings of more
than 10 people, issuing fines for refusal to wear a mask, ordering
private schools and childcare centers that do not meet city standards to
close and shutting down all nonessential businesses immediately.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks alongside his wife Chirlane
McCray during a memorial service for George Floyd at Cadman Plaza Park
in the Brooklyn borough of New York, June 4, 2020. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
The department also announced “regular inspections of all non-public
schools within these clusters and their adjacent zip codes,” according
to the email.
The department pointed to continued increases in positive COVID test
results in the six neighborhoods cited on Tuesday — Williamsburg,
Borough Park, Midwood, Bensonhurst/Mapleton, Kew Gardens, and Far
Rockaway — as well as two other neighborhoods, Gravesend/Homecrest and
Gerritsen Beach/Homecrest/Sheepshead Bay.
After announcing the uptick in cases Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said
the city would increase communication with community leaders and
outreach to residents of the neighborhoods themselves.
There is already a push to stop testing in several of the Orthodox
communities seeing an uptick, due to the low threshold for positive
COVID cases to shut down schools.
A message circulated on Whatsapp Thursday advised parents not to have
their children tested for COVID because it could lead to schools being
shut down. A flyer circulated on Whatsapp Thursday, signed by leaders of
the Williamsburg Hasidic community, also discouraged COVID testing in a
message in Yiddish.
New York state on Saturday reported over 1,000 daily coronavirus cases,
for the first time since June 5.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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