An uptick in coronavirus cases in Borough Park has been linked in part to a grand wedding attended by members of Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox community, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.
Health officials have registered 16 new COVID-19 cases in the area in recent days, Blasio said. As a result, the city will engage more testing and community development in Borough Park, a deliberate effort similar to the one that was carried out in Sunset Park, after that neighborhood saw a spike in cases earlier this month.
“We see some cases, more cases, but certainly do not want to call it a cluster,” the mayor said, describing the new infections as “an early warning sign.”
Interior collections such as weddings are currently limited to 50 people, with a cap on 50 percent of the maximum capacity of a space. At least some of Borough Park’s cases can be traced back to a recent “big wedding” that wrote these rules, according to the mayor.
The ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Brooklyn saw some of the highest early concentrations of COVID-19 infections. Hasidic news media reported that about 700 members of the nearby community died in the early weeks of the virus.
But forbidden gatherings in the community, including weddings and funerals, became a flashpoint at the height of the coronavirus in New York City, leading to several NYPD confrontations.
A member of the Hasidic Jewish community, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of backwardness, said there was a feeling among some of his neighbors that they were now immune to the virus, following the devastating wave in the spring.
The source said that “large weddings with zero-to-no distance” were not an anomaly within the religious community. “There has been effective zero-spread mitigation in this community since May,” he added.
Asked about possible consequences for the location, Blasio said the city was less focused on discipline than following up on wedding attendees.
“We will find out what we can do to address the situation retrospectively, but I am really more concerned about moving forward. We had to identify the people at that wedding and make sure that every spread is contained,” he said.
The city’s positive test rate for COVID-19 remains well below 1 percent, though officials say New Yorkers should expect a second wave of infections sometime in the coming months.
