NYC Steps Up Mask, Social Distancing Enforcement In Neighborhoods With COVID-19 Clusters: ‘Enforcement Works’
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police will be back on New York City streets Friday enforcing social distancing rules and mask compliance.
The effort comes as several coronavirus clusters in Brooklyn and Queens continue to cause alarm.
With faces covered and PPE in hand, officers stood outside a corner market Thursday in Williamsburg, insisting the men, women and children passing by put on masks.
“There should be enforcement. Enforcement works,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
New York State has 20 problematic zip codes — mostly in Brooklyn, Queens and Rockland County — where the average COVID-19 positive rate has risen to 6.5%.
However, some say the stepped up enforcement unfairly targets the Orthodox Jewish population.
“The governor and the mayor are playing tennis, and the tennis ball is the Jewish community, and we’re being slapped around like crazy,” said Brooklyn community activist Isaac Abraham.
Jewish leader and former Assemblyman Dov Hikind told CBS2 the problem with compliance, especially when it comes to large gatherings, isn’t a stereotype — it’s a fact.
“The leading rabbis, I want to hear from them. I want to hear them telling everyone that if you violate the rules, you are disobeying God,” he said. “Because we’re talking about human life here. There’s nothing more valuable in Judaism than life.”
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On Thursday, middle and high schools opened for in-person learning.
However, the fanfare of the first day was short lived for special education teacher Naun Umanzor. He tweeted video of his empty classroom after no one showed up for first period.
“The kids did have to get temperature checks, so maybe that delayed them coming in on time,” he said.
In fact, it made some kids an hour later. That kink will need to be worked out, because screening for symptoms is more important than ever.
“I understand the clusters can definitely scare people,” said Umanzor. “The state and the city, I know, are trying to contain that.”
Governors in both New York and New Jersey urge people to download a free, voluntary contact tracing app that alerts you if you have been near a COVID-positive person.
Google put out a tutorial on the technology that it says won’t track your location or share your identity.
If your phone has exchanged numbers in the last two weeks with someone who reports a positive result in the app, you will get a notification saying you may have been exposed.
“It’s a great tool to alert you if you happen to be within six feet of a person who tests positive,” Cuomo said.
Reminder, you can be fined up to $1,000 for breaking social distancing rules.
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October 02, 2020 at 04:45PM
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