City homicides have spiked nearly 30 percent through the first two months of 2019, leaving the NYPD scrambling to redeploy cops to troubled areas to stanch the bloodshed, the department said Monday in its monthly crime-stats briefing.

Through Sunday, the five boroughs have seen 53 murders this year, a 29.3-percent jump from the 41 slayings logged over the same period in 2018, according to the latest NYPD numbers.

The year’s troubling trend began in January, which saw 22.7 percent more murders than the first month of 2018. The situation grew even worse in February, which registered 24 murders — or 50 percent more than the 16 logged in February 2018.

The homicide hike even gave pause to Mayor de Blasio, who often touts New York as “the safest big city in America.”

“The bad news is, we see some areas of real concern, particularly when it comes to homicide,” Hizzoner said. “We take that very, very seriously.”

Fifteen of this year’s 53 homicides, or 28.3 percent, were gang-related, while a dozen, or 22.6 percent, were classified as domestic, the department said.

Drug deals turned deadly accounted for 9.4 percent.

The remaining 39.7 percent of slayings weren’t placed into a specific category by the NYPD.

To combat the spate of killings, the NYPD has zeroed in on four precincts across four boroughs particularly troubled by rising violence: the 34th in Upper Manhattan; the 43rd in the Parkchester section of The Bronx; the 79th in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; and the 113th in Jamaica, Queens.

Starting immediately, each of the commands will be reinforced by at least eight additional cops stationed in “pockets of violence,” according to Chief of Department Terence Monahan.

“They will be deployed by the precinct’s executive officer at highly visible locations and at critical times when and where this violence has occurred,” Monahan said.

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill maintained that the murder spike was a blip on the radar in a historically safe time in the city, but nevertheless found it prudent to nip it in the bud.

“These are the lowest homicide numbers we’ve had since the 1950s, so there’s going to be periodic fluctuations,” the top cop said, referring to murder totals in recent years. “That’s why I asked Terry Monahan and Lori [Pollock, chief of Crime Control Strategies] to come up with a strategy, a murder strategy, to make sure we do our best to protect the people of the city.”

In addition to the roving backup, the NYPD listed several other initiatives to help tamp down the violence, including an expansion of the CeaseFire program — which aims to mediate gang beefs before they turn deadly — and increased efforts to get guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

Seven of the deaths occurred prior to 2019, but were only formally classified as murders after Jan. 1, meaning they go onto this year’s tally, the department said.

Despite the mounting homicides, officials trumpeted the overall crime numbers, which include a 10.8 percent overall drop in major incidents across the city.

Robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies and car thefts are all down through the first two months of 2019.

Rapes are up by 18.8 percent — but have been for months in what the NYPD has welcomed as an increased willingness to report sex assaults in the #MeToo era, particularly in domestic situations.

“With crime at a record low in New York City, there is still more work to do to ensure that every New Yorker feels safe in their neighborhood,” de Blasio said.

Department insiders were more skeptical, arguing the slayings could be a sign of things to come unless cops cracked down.

“The perps know now that cops aren’t going to touch them,” said one police source. “If you put your hands on anybody, you’re going to get in trouble.”

Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy