One Out of 105 New Yorkers Tested Positive for COVID Last Week

Photo: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is sweeping through New York.

Numbers from New York governor Kathy Hochul’s office said that there were 22,258 new positive cases across the state as of Monday. But new data for New York City shows just how quickly coronavirus cases spread across the five boroughs just within the past week. From December 13 to 19, there were 956.48 cases per 100,000 people citywide, meaning that approximately 1 in 105 New Yorkers tested positive for COVID-19 during that time, according to the New York Times.

In that same week, the rate of transmission was the highest in Manhattan, with the borough seeing 1553.99 cases per 100,000 people. The Bronx had the lowest rate, showing 606.82 cases per 100,000. On the neighborhood level, Greenwich Village and SoHo had one of the highest rates within the same time period. That area saw 2,850 new cases out of 100,000, which means that about 1 in 35 residents tested positive.

Omicron, which is now the dominant strain of the virus circulating in the United States, has prompted both the federal government and local city government to announce that it will provide free home test kits to those who want them, though the federal government’s program won’t start until January.