In response to an increase in Covid-19 cases in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, Governor Andrew Cuomo and his team unveiled a “Cluster Action Initiative” on Tuesday featuring a color-coded system of densely affected areas and buffer zones.
Boundaries are not based on zip codes (as Mayor Bill de Blasio had suggested they be) and are designated by red, orange, and yellow – from worst to best.
Set to take effect no later than Friday, rules in red zones are: schools must close to in-person learning, only essential businesses can remain open, houses of worship can hold no more than 10 people, and restaurants can offer only take-out and delivery.
In Brooklyn, the Red Zone area extends from Borough Park and Crown Heights to Midwood and Gerritsen Beach with a buffer zone that extends from the Brooklyn Piers to Canarsie and Sheepshead Bay. The impacted area does not include the isolated residential and heavily-populated Orthodox Jewish community of Mill Basin and Fillmore Gardens.
In Queens, there are two distinct and separate zones that appear as bullseyes on a map. Orange and Rockland counties, north of New York City, each have one bullseye described by the governor as being relatively small.
In Rockland County, the area is the town of Ramapo, which includes Spring Valley and Monsey, the largest center of chassidim in the United States outside New York City, with approximately 5,400 households. The town also includes the communities of Chestnut Ridge, New Hempstead, New Square, Montebello, and the village of Wesley Hills.
During a Tuesday news conference, the governor said he deeply respects and has close ties to the Orthodox Jewish community that go back more than 30 years. Cuomo said the crackdown results from love and respect for Orthodox Jews.
“In Jewish teachings, one of the most precious principles is saving a life,” Cuomo said. “The Torah speaks about how certain religious obligations can be excused if you are going to save a life. This is about saving a life. No large gatherings in synagogues to save a life. You look at those infection rates. You look at those clusters. People will die in those clusters. This is about protecting people and saving lives.”
“It’s not about the rules,” Cuomo said. “It’s about the enforcement. Houses of worship weren’t supposed to have more than 50 people. They had hundreds and hundreds for weeks. Why? Because it wasn’t enforced. So now we go from 50 to 10 [congregants in any one house of worship]. Unless it’s enforced, you’ll still have hundreds of people. It’s all about the enforcement.”
Cuomo said he also wants to protect school children from being infected by the virus and bringing the infection home to their parents.
“The big generators are schools, it’s children,” Cuomo said Monday. “There are about 180 schools in these clusters that have not been tested yet and that gives me concern, and they are possible transmission places. Then it’s going to be the mass gatherings and the religious institutions and those are the pictures, right? It is those super-spreading situations that we have to get a handle on.”
Cuomo also expressed his frustration with local government officials and community leaders on Tuesday.
“Nonessential businesses can be closed but it’s not about nonessenitial businesses,” Cuomo said in a fit of pique. “It’s about the mass gatherings. It’s not about the schools. It’s about the mass gatherings. That’s how this [the coronavirus clusters] happens. That is what is starting the problem.”
Businesses will have until the end of the week, Friday, October 9, to comply with the enforcement actions or be shut down. Businesses were being notified of the new restrictions during a three day period between Tuesday and Friday.
There were 162 deaths due to coronavirus in September, an average of 5.4 deaths per day. For the first five days of October, there were 44 deaths due to coronavirus.