Orthodox Jews appear to ignore social distancing during mass gathering in Brooklyn
Amid a spiking daily coronavirus infection rate in the Big Apple, a large gathering of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn — a hot spot of the disease, along with Queens — was captured in a video that shows them apparently ignoring preventive measures.
One user on Twitter also posted footage of the group, which he said was walking through a neighborhood in Borough Park late Tuesday.
The mass gathering took place on the same day Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city’s daily coronavirus infection rate was more than 3 percent.
When asked by The Post on Wednesday about the mass gathering, Hizzoner said he was unaware of it.
“But what we will do in any case like that is follow back to who was involved, how can we reach those people or if we expect a recurrence to make sure we have personnel out to address it,” de Blasio said during his remote press briefing.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, said the state is “dealing with this cluster situation,” adding that “we are oversampling in this cluster.”
The ZIP codes in Brooklyn’s Kings County had positivity rates ranging from 4 percent to 8 percent, the governor said.
“I spoke to the leaders of the Orthodox community this morning and we had a good conversation,” Cuomo said, adding that authorities on the local level have not been diligent in enforcing the state law.
“They’re defying the law, and that’s when you need to enforce the law,” he said about people who flout social-distancing rules. “You know what makes people really unhappy? Dying makes people really unhappy.”
He added: “The infection rate going up and then having to close businesses make people really unhappy. So local governments enforce the law. If you are unable to enforce the law, I will enforce the law.”
On Tuesday, de Blaso said that “for the first time in quite a while, the daily number is over 3 percent and that is cause for concern. We have not seen a day like that in quite a while. We do not want to see days like that.”
He said that primarily nine ZIP codes in the two boroughs have driven the daily positivity rate up to 3.25 percent — the highest rate since early June.
The hot spots — which include Gravesend/Homecrest, Midwood, Kew Gardens, Edgemere/Far Rockaway, Borough Park, Bensonhurst/Mapleton, Gerritsen Beach/Sheepshead Bay, Flatlands, and Kew Gardens Hills/Pomonok — account for more than 25 percent of all cases in the city over the past two weeks.
“This is an inflection point,” de Blasio said. “We have to take more action at this point and more serious action.”
Cuomo said Tuesday that he would meet with members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
“If you look at those clusters and you look at those ZIP codes, you see there’s a large overlap with large Orthodox Jewish communities, and that is a fact,” Cuomo said.
“This is a concern for their community, a public health concern for their community,” he said. “It’s also a public health concern for surrounding communities.”
The NYPD said in a statement that they are keeping an eye on the situation.
“The NYPD will continue our education and awareness campaign and will deploy our resources as conditions warrant,” the department said in a statement. “Our APOs [auxiliary police officers] will be on the streets to hand out free masks as needed.”
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy