MANHATTAN (CN) — Vaccination rates in New York City have dropped precipitously in the pandemic era, a trend that does not bode well for children getting sick with the novel coronavirus, Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot warned Wednesday.
Herself a pediatrician, Barbot joined Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daily press conference to tout vaccines as a safe and effective way to prevent illness such as whooping cough, measles and mumps.
Being unvaccinated for other diseases could actually increase a child's chances of being sick with Covid-19, Barbot warned, emphasizing that contracting preventable respiratory illness on top of Covid-19 could cause more serious illness.
The number of administered vaccine doses in the city is down 63% overall, the mayor said. It's dropped 42% among children 2 and under, and a shocking 91% for children over 2 years of age.
“The reasons are obvious: Doctors' offices have been closed in many cases. Families are staying home. We’ve had to focus on the most urgent needs on health care,” de Blasio said.
Against this backdrop, hospitals are seeing increasing cases of children falling ill with an inflammatory syndrome that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention connected with the novel coronavirus. The disease in children is characterized by prolonged fever, abdominal upset, and bright red lips or tongue, among other symptoms, and has been termed MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
“So the pieces unfortunately start to fit together in a way,” said de Blasio. “Contracting a disease on top of that [MIS-C] — that combination is dangerous … we don't want to see any of that happen to any child, so bottom line to all parents, all family members out there, get your child vaccinated,” he said.
City officials emphasized that parents and guardians need not enter a hospital to get their child vaccinated. Vaccines are offered for free at over 1,000 New York City facilities. Families can make an appointment by calling 844-NYC-4NYC.
New York is also falling behind in census responses, de Blasio noted. The overall response rate for the 2020 census is 59% nationwide, but the New York City response rate is just 49%. Residents can fill out their census online at my2020census.gov, or by mail or phone.
New York City has now seen 192,374 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 20,934 probable and confirmed fatalities. But in a good sign, the percentage of New Yorkers tested who test positive for the virus has dropped to just 8%, the mayor said Wednesday.
Statewide numbers continue to drop as well, though slowly, said Governor Andrew Cuomo in his own Wednesday press conference in Albany. The state lost 112 people to the virus yesterday and counts 22,976 deaths overall, though that number is likely low as it counts only those who tested positive for Covid-19.
State data shows 354,370 New Yorkers have tested positive for the virus.
Cuomo also announced the results of an antibody study conducted by the state in low-income communities, assisted by faith organizations. It has been clear for weeks that the virus has taken a larger toll on communities of color and low-income groups, and the new numbers, too, are stark.
In one neighborhood in the Bronx, Morrisania, 43% of people tested positive for antibodies. In Brownsville, Brooklyn, 41% had antibodies. In New York City overall, about 19.9% carry antibodies, the state found with an earlier study.
Low-income neighborhoods also have higher hospitalization rates for the virus, the new study found. In Morrisania, 3.26 of every 100,000 residents were hospitalized, while New York City overall saw just 1.8 per 100,000.
Cuomo thanked New York Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries for the idea to conduct an antibody study in low-income communities.
“We want to now take the next step, which is outreach programs, getting the PPP into the community,” Cuomo said, using the abbreviation for personal protective equipment, “getting the hand sanitizer in the community, explaining social distancing, and why that's so important, and explain how this virus spreads. It’s a public health education effort.”
