New data released Monday shows stark disparities in coronavirus death rates across New York City neighborhoods.
The New York City Health Department for the first time released data on coronavirus deaths broken down by the city’s more than 60 ZIP codes, showing that some neighborhoods are experiencing death rates almost 15 times higher than others.
The data demonstrates the COVID-19 pandemic has been deadliest in black and Latino neighborhoods, according to analysis by Reuters.
The highest death rate was documented in Canarsie-Flatlands in Brooklyn, an area with a subsidized housing development, where 612 in 100,000 people died from the virus.
The primarily white and wealthy neighborhood Gramercy Park in Manhattan 31 deaths per 100,000 people were recorded. In Far Rockaway in Queens, which has a 40 percent black and a 25 percent Latino population, there were 445 deaths per 100,000 people.
New York City had previously released daily updates in cases broken down by ZIP code but the death count was released by borough.
City advocates have been calling for more data collection, saying it would show racial and economic inequalities in the U.S. city that has been hardest hit by the pandemic.
Mark Levine, the chairman of the City Council’s health committee, told Reuters in an interview that black and Latino residents are more likely to have low-paid, essential jobs putting them at risk of contracting the virus.
He added that these populations are more likely to live in smaller, more crowded apartments and have underlying health conditions.
“It’s really heartbreaking and it should tug at the moral conscience of the city,” he told Reuters. “We knew we had dramatic inequality. This, in graphic form, shows it’s even greater than maybe many of us feared.”
In total, New York City has recorded 191,073 cases of coronavirus, leading to at least 50,217 hospitalizations. The city has documented at least 15,983 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 4,823 probable deaths.
