Groups of up to 200 people openly stood closely together without masks Monday in two Brooklyn areas suffering from spiking COVID-19 infection rates — as the police presence appeared virtually non-existent.
“We all already had it,’’ said a woman leaving a synagogue at 152 Rodney St. in Williamsburg with her daughter when asked by The Post why no one was wearing a mask in the crowd of up to 200 people outside.
“We’re all fine,’’ the mother insisted — even though city health officials have said there is no herd immunity in the Big Apple against getting the contagion, nor any evidence that people who have been infected can’t get reinfected.
“Our doctors are giving hydroxy right away,” the woman said, referring to a controversial reputed treatment for the coronavirus that has yet to be proven effective. “Ninety-nine percent of the people had [the virus] in Williamsburg.”
A marked NYPD car slowly drove by the synagogue’s entrance without stopping as the crowd milled about.
A counterterrorism cop stood nearby. When asked why authorities weren’t warning the crowd to at least socially distance amid the deadly pandemic, the officer appeared concerned about the situation but said that wasn’t what he was there for.
City health officials warned in a statement Sunday that the neighborhood “remains an area where we are observing a faster increase in cases compared to other parts of the city, even though the test positivity rate is below 3% (1.78%).’’
But that rate is nothing compared to a section of Borough Park that the state said registered a terrifying 17 percent positive test rate for the contagion Sunday — and where groups of dozens of people without masks milled around together during the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur on Monday.
The city said the two-week average for the neighborhood is 4.63 percent — more than double the latest citywide rate of 1.93 percent.
Groups of at least 50 people, mostly without masks, huddled together in several places in a Borough Park section designated a COVID hot zone by the state — close enough to touch each other after services.
No police were in sight.
When The Post tried taking photos and video of the scene, several men without masks rushed a reporter, chasing him to his car, with one spitting on his driver’s window and screaming after the scribe got inside.



The adult men then told around 150 boys to crowd around the car, blocking the reporter in.
Two cops responded to a Post call from the scene and urged the crowd on a loudspeaker to disperse. When dozens of people began pounding on the reporter’s car, the cops told them to back off — to no avail. The reporter was eventually able to drive away.
NYPD spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell told The Post in a statement, “The NYPD will continue our education and awareness campaign and will deploy our resources as conditions warrant. Our [officers] will be on the streets to hand out free masks as needed.
Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan and Tina Moore




