In the wake of new data showing that Hispanic and black New Yorkers are dying from COVID-19 at higher rates than other racial groups, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to come up with a plan to redirect resources and raise public awareness within the communities most affected by the disease.
On Wednesday, the city released data showing that 34 percent of the COVID-19 fatalities were Hispanic, while 28 percent were black. Whites, meanwhile, accounted for 27 percent of deaths. Asians were least represented in the total deaths, that of 7 percent.
Elected officials have been pressuring the de Blasio administration to issue more detailed demographic data. At least eight states have already done so.
There is a positive correlation between zip code and percentage of cases in the Hispanic population; each dot represents a neighborhood.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who was among those who criticized the city for its failure to release racial and ethnic data, offered measured praise for the mayor’s new strategy, which included ensuring that public hospitals have sufficient equipment and supplies they need and a targeted media campaign in neighborhoods with the highest cases of COVID-19.
But he also argued that these initiatives, along with a full lockdown, should have been implemented weeks ago.
Listen to Brigid Bergin discuss the city’s data with Jami Floyd on WNYC’s All Things Considered:
“Where is the bold lockdown that needs to happen?” he said. “Where is the emergency broadcast system that needs to be put in place? Where is the reassessing of what an essential worker is? We keep trying to tinker with these things and it’s costing people their lives.”
He said he was struck by the fact that the city’s data on race was incomplete, representing only 63 percent of the reported deaths by ethnicity.
A total of 37 percent of cases were marked as “unknown.”
“I think if we had that information we’d see that dataset more starkly different and disparate,” he said. “And we know that people are dying at home, particularly in these black and brown communities that also are not being counted.”
Following a Gothamist/WNYC story about a surge in at-home deaths, the city will begin counting those deaths in which COVID-19 was identified as the probable cause. The city’s health department is aiming to incorporate race and ethnicity data in those cases as well.
Both City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Bronx Councilmember Ritchie Torres had publicly called on the administration to provide racial breakdowns of cases and deaths.
Torres, who was the first City Council member known to have tested positive for coronavirus, said he found Wednesday's data alarming, adding that they confirmed his suspicions that black and brown communities have been more vulnerable to the disease.
According to the state, 86 percent of the fatalities had at least one comorbidity, such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Those are the same conditions that afflict black and Hispanics, particular those in low-income communities.
“Hypertension is more than three times more prevalent in the South Bronx than in the Financial District,” Torres said. “Diabetes is more than five times more prevalent in the South Bronx than in the Financial District. The data is crystal clear that poverty predisposes people to the worst effects of COVID-19.”
Torres also pointed to two public hospitals, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, as serving areas that have large immigrant communities.
“All Americans are paying a price, but communities of color have the heaviest cross to bear,” he said.
At a press conference on Wednesday morning, de Blasio said the data reinforces the existing health disparities across the city.
“It made me angry to see that the disparities that have plagued this city, this nation, that are all about fundamental inequality are once again causing such pain, and once again, causing innocent people to lose their lives,” he said. “It’s sick, it’s troubling, it’s wrong and we’re going to fight back with everything we’ve got.”
There is a positive correlation between zip code and percentage of cases in the black population; each dot represents a neighborhood.
The city's health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, said as recently as Sunday that the city was not reporting this racial demographic information because the data from its health partners was incomplete. She said the Department of Health has taken additional steps to collect this information, including by working with hospitals to address the legal and technical challenges to access their electronic records.
In response to the new data on race, the mayor said the city would take a series of steps to help communities hardest hit by the virus. The initial focus remains ensuring the city’s public hospitals, including hard hit places like Elmhurst Hospital, have the ventilators, medical personnel and personal protective equipment they need.
The city also plans to launch a TV, radio, and digital public awareness campaign in 14 different languages with a focus on the zip codes with the highest cases of COVID-19. The mayor said the city will also begin doing more grassroots outreach, with robo-calls, texting and home visits from community health care providers.
Asked why the city was just beginning this targeted response nearly a month after the city’s first COVID-19 fatality, de Blasio insisted the city had been communicating the risks all along.
“You go back and look at all the messages, all the efforts made to educate and inform people, to get them help, to help them know where to turn, there is a huge amount that was done,” said de Blasio.
But he added, “It’s quite clear now we have to go to another level.”
