NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2020) It is too early to discuss what percentage of New York City residents have herd immunity to the novel coronavirus disease, New York State Department of Health (NYSDH) Director of Public Information Jonah Bruno told Sputnik on Friday.
"It is premature to discuss herd immunity since we are still learning what the presence of COVID-19 antibodies means to an individual and whether, or for how long, that conveys immunity. And we don't know how the level of immunity in a single community translates into herd immunity," Bruno said.
He noted that according to recent serology tests, conducted by the health department, approximately 20 percent of New York City residents have COVID-19 antibodies.
However, the rates of people with antibodies are different across the city's postal codes, Bruno said.
The New York State, once the worst-hit locality in the world, has managed to suppress the outbreak and is now wary of new cases being potentially imported from other US regions. During the peak of the pandemic, over 700 people were dying in the city of COVID-19 per day and over 3,000 were being hospitalized.
In some communities of the city with a low-income population such as Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, 60 percent of residents tested positive for COVID-19.
