Some New York City neighborhoods are experiencing a marked increase in new COVID-19 cases and health officials say low vaccination rates and more transmissible variants like delta are to blame.Out of 10 areas citywide with the lowest vaccination rates, six of them also have the highest positivity rates, according to the city’s health department.
The city’s COVID dashboard points to a troubling uptick in overall positives cases that now has the rolling positivity rate at 1.22% after weeks of all-time lows. Its new daily case average is up 32% over the last seven days compared with the seven-day average for the four weeks prior. Hospitalizations are down 24% in the same time period, while deaths are in the low single digits, though both are lagging indicators that could see increases after daily case counts do.
- https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/nyc-sees-32-increase-in-new-covid-cases-as-neighborhood-concerns-mount/3149382/
Japan Bans Fans at Tokyo-area Olympics Venues Due to Virus
Fans will be banned from Tokyo-area stadiums and arenas when the Olympics begin in two weeks, the city’s governor said Thursday after meeting with organizers of the pandemic-postponed games.That means the Olympics will be a largely TV-only event, after the Japanese government put the capital under a COVID-19 state of emergency because of rising new infections and the highly contagious delta variant.
The declaration was made by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and the spectator ban was agreed to by Japanese Olympic organizers, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, and the metropolitan government of Tokyo.It was a serious blow for Japanese taxpayers and local organizers of the games, which already had been postponed from 2020 by the coronavirus. Hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket revenue will be lost, and that must be made up by the government. Fans also have endured months of uncertainty about whether the Olympics will go ahead.