Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jul 22, 2025

Why New York has been hit so hard by coronavirus

Why New York has been hit so hard by coronavirus

New York state reached a tragic milestone this week: It now has more Covid-19 patients than any country in the world, aside from the United States.
The state's total of 181,026 cases, as of April 11, is higher than Spain's (161,852 cases) and Italy's (152,271), countries with populations many times larger than New York.

The disease is killing New Yorkers disproportionately. Of the 20,389 deaths in the United States, 8,627, or 42%, have occurred in New York. Its mortality rate is 4.7%, compared with 3.4% in the rest of the country, according to CNN's figures based on data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

New York City and its suburban counties - Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland - are responsible for 93% of the statewide case count. Furthermore, in New York City, the Covid-19 death rate is about 6% higher than most countries.

Why does New York seem to be having a different epidemic from most other parts of the country?

Is the reason simply population size and density? New York is by far the nation's most populous city, with more than 8 million people, twice as many as Los Angeles. But New York also has eight or nine times more cases than any other city -so what gives? No other city or county has a fraction of the cases of New York City.

A caution on numbers: Counting cases and mortality rates is difficult because most counting is done by county or borough or parish rather than city, and city of residence may differ from city of diagnosis or death. Even so, New York City is off the charts.

How about population density? Covid-19 spreads most easily when people are packed together - in churches or cruise ships, in outdoor events like concerts or Mardi Gras, or perhaps in small apartments with multiple roommates or large families. New York's population density, about 27,000 people per square mile, is easily the highest in the country, though it's nowhere near the top for cities across the globe. Many cities - in Asia, for example - have a density of nearly 40,000 people per square mile.

The density explanation may explain some of the difference, but not all of it. New York's densest borough is Manhattan, while relatively sprawling Queens sits at fourth out of five. But Queens has more than twice the cases and twice the rate of cases as Manhattan.

Maybe it's because so much testing is being done in New York. If you test more, you find more, and if you find more, you test even more. It is likely that more tests, and more tests per population, are performed in New York than elsewhere in the United States, and that the New York rate stacks up favorably to countries with aggressive testing programs, such as Iceland and South Korea and Germany, but comparative information is sketchy. The split between tests performed by public versus private labs has made accurate tracking just about impossible, despite the heroic efforts of such groups as Covidtracking.com, Worldometers, and Our World in Data.

Furthermore, the current advice - stay home if you are sick but stable and don't be tested - introduces additional uncertainty. This pales in comparison to the clear evidence of deaths at home likely due to Covid-19 but never diagnosed. So yes, New York City probably is testing at a brisker pace than elsewhere and yes, this may contribute to the high case numbers, but we will never have an accurate picture.

The high number of cases and rates likely do derive in some modest amount to each explanation above - plus the fact that the epidemic has been in New York City a week or two longer than many other places. A more mature epidemic is always a larger epidemic.

More concerning is the elevated mortality rate in New York City. As has been well documented, some of this is due to the tragic overwhelming of the city's hospitals. We will never know just how many people died due to the country's inept preparation for the pandemic, but the impact surely was, and still is, substantial.

Still, a mortality rate of about 6% is quite high, even though most countries, particularly in western Europe, have seen mortality rates rise as the pandemic drags on. As patients who have hung on for weeks have begun to die, and the rate of new cases has slowed, this tilts the proportion of fatal cases.

New York City also has had a very male outbreak; substantially more men have been diagnosed, hospitalized and have died, in keeping with data seen in other countries.

Sadly, the likeliest explanation for the high death rate, though, is the chronically inadequate health care given to minorities and the poor throughout New York City, as in the rest of the country. New York City and New York state have only now released the race distribution of cases and deaths, as well as by zip code, a surrogate for poverty rates. It is clear that severe disease has not been distributed equally by race and ethnicity.

Black and Hispanic New Yorkers represent 51% of the city's population, yet account for 62% of Covid-19 deaths. They have twice the rate of death compared with whites, when adjusted for age. This likely is due to both a higher proportion of black and Hispanic New Yorkers being diagnosed with severe disease and a higher rate of death among those who are known to be infected.

This disparity likely is the result of several factors. Co-morbid conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, are strongly associated with death from Covid-19 and are more common in black and Hispanic communities. But what causes high rates of poorly controlled hypertension and diabetes? Lack of appropriate health care. People who cannot easily find good health care for reasons of money, time, location, or trust may be more likely to stay at home undiagnosed and spread the virus - as well as experience potentially fatal delays in diagnosis and treatment.

The explanation is the same for New York City as for Italy, New Orleans and probably Iran: the virus exploits weaknesses in health and health care, be it advanced age or co-morbidity or access to care.

Hopefully, the Covid-19 pandemic will force us to reckon honestly with the many shortfalls that have been exposed and build a fair, forward-thinking approach that allows doctors and nurses to care for people in need. Failure to do this will only further darken the memory of those who have died and the hearts of those who remain.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
×