The New York Neighborhoods With the Most Coronavirus Cases Working-class and Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn among city’s hardest hit areas, according to new data By Katie Honan
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-york-neighborhoods-with-the-most-coronavirus-cases-11585781164?mod=hp_lead_pos5
The new coronavirus has struck hardest in working-class neighborhoods in New York City’s outer boroughs, city data shows, underlining how the pandemic has ravaged densely packed lower-income areas where social-distancing guidelines have proved difficult to implement.
Two areas of Queens—Corona and Elmhurst—have led the city in reported infections, with 947 and 831 as of March 31, respectively, the data show. Both neighborhoods are heavily populated by immigrants who live in close quarters, often with multiple families sharing a dwelling, said City Councilman Francisco Moya.
Many residents there don’t have the luxury to telecommute because they work in the hospitality industry, at restaurants or supermarkets, he said. “One person gets sick, it spreads around that household,” said Mr. Moya who represents Corona.
New York City has become the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and the Covid-19 disease that the pathogen causes. As of Wednesday morning, there were 44,915 positive cases in the city and 1,139 deaths. Queens had the most positive cases, with 14,966, and the most deaths in a borough, with 386.
Dr. Mitchell Katz, the chief executive and president of NYC Health + Hospitals, said it is difficult for some people to isolate and maintain social distancing to slow the spread of the virus, especially in the hardest-hit neighborhoods in Queens. “You may have multiple families living together in a very small apartment, so it’s easy to understand why there’s a lot of transmission of Covid occurring,” he said Wednesday.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Wednesday released the raw numbers of people who were tested and those who were diagnosed with the infection, broken down by ZIP Code, after Mayor Bill de Blasio had resisted the move for more than a week.
A health-care worker in Elmhurst emerges from behind a plastic barrier. The neighborhood is one of two in Queens that have led the city in reported Covid-19 cases.
Photo: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
The virus also appears to have preyed upon the tight bonds of faith, family and community that connect Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. The borough’s two most heavily infected neighborhoods were Borough Park and Midwood with 771 and 631 cases, respectively. Both are heavily Orthodox Jewish.
Norwood and Gun Hill in the Bronx had 638 cases, and 1,134 people tested.
By contrast, wealthier neighborhoods had fewer tests and positive cases. In the ZIP Code covering lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center, 24 people were tested and six were positive, data show. Battery Park City’s ZIP Code had 38 people tested and 16 positive cases.
And in Long Island City, Queens, which has more newly built, high-end apartments, 45 people were tested and 13 tested positive, according to the data.
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The data reflects the home ZIP Codes of those tested, a health-department spokeswoman said.
Officials said the data doesn’t fully capture the virus’s spread because many sick people aren’t getting tested or are asymptomatic. Still, city officials, including Mr. de Blasio, said they believed the data was accurate enough to be released now.
“I think I’m getting a flow of information that’s ready to be made public more and more,” the mayor said at a news conference.
Of people who got tested, Queens residents had the highest positive rate, with 59% of those tested having been infected. More people also have been tested there than in other boroughs.
Brooklyn’s positive-test rate was 56%, and the Bronx’s is 53%. Manhattan and Staten Island have a 43% and 48% positive-testing rate, respectively.
Four ZIP Codes in Queens have a positive-test rate greater than 70%. In no other borough was a ZIP code’s rate that high.
—Coulter Jones contributed to this article.
Write to Katie Honan at Katie.Honan@wsj.com
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