How the Coronavirus Variants Are Spreading in New York City New, searchable ZIP code-level data provides a close look at how contagious variants have kept New York’s case levels alarmingly high. The original forms of the virus are increasingly unusual across the city, as the variants continue to spread.Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty Images April 13, 2021Updated 2:23 p.m. ET The number of new coronavirus cases in New York City has remained alarmingly, and stubbornly, high for weeks, even as tens of thousands of people are vaccinated daily. A likely reason is that more contagious variants have displaced the original forms of the virus, public health officials have said, accounting for more than 75 percent of new cases, according to a recent analysis.