“In Staten Island, the percentage positivity and the number of cases have increased in the past few days and weeks,” said the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, on Monday. “And that’s because we have unvaccinated people, especially younger people who stay unvaccinated.”
But the uptrend goes way beyond Staten Island. The number of cases has increased significantly in all districts. In Brooklyn, the average daily number of cases has almost doubled from under 60 to over 100 in the past few weeks. As of Tuesday, Harlem had the zip code with the highest average positive test rate in the city of 4.89.
The unvaccinated are the most vulnerable
Health officials said the vast majority of those who tested positive were not fully vaccinated.
The health department has not yet released statistics on how many new cases there are among fully vaccinated people. Data from other countries show that a full regimen of the vaccines used in New York offers high levels of protection against the Delta variant.
Still, breakthrough cases aren’t hard to find. Stories of them are circulating on Twitter and in clinics and other test sites.
Tony Smith, a 31-year-old Brooklyn resident who works for a social impact company, thought he was through with Covid this spring when he received his two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. He had contracted the virus during the first New York wave and suffered from a number of symptoms, including chest pain. His resting heart rate was increased for months.
After his second vaccination, his heart rate dropped and he began to feel normal.
Then on Sunday he woke up slightly ill. The next day, his heart rate felt higher. And he felt the same terrible feeling in his chest as he did with his first Covid-19 illness. “It’s like folding aluminum foil in my chest,” said Mr. Smith.
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