New York City Divided by a Virus

The United States has become the epicenter of the global coranavirus outbreak. The state of New York is the epicenter of this outbreak in the United States and within that state New York City has the hardest hit neighborhoods. But not all communities in New York have been hit as hard as others.

ProPublica's Coronavirus in New York City interactive map shows how many people have tested positive in each zip code area in the city. If you select a zip code area you can view the number of people per thousand who have tested positive for Covid-19. The map sidebar also reveals how this compares to the city average. What is very clear from the map is that some neighborhoods of New York have substantially more people testing positive than other neighborhoods.

The data for the ProPublica map comes from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The same data is used on the New York City coronavirus cases by zip code interactive map. A map which includes other data which may help to explain the huge differences being seen between different neighborhoods.



If you mouse-over a zip code area on this map you can not only see the number of positive results for Covid-19 but also the percentage of the population who are not white and the percentage living below the poverty line. It appears that there is a pretty strong correlation between the rate of positive tests in a neighborhood and the number of people living in poverty and the number of non-white residents.

It has been noticed by many people that New York's poorest neighborhoods have suffered most from the pandemic. There may be a number of different reasons for this. Ed Pilkington and Ankita Rao in A Tale of Two New Yorks make a convincing case that many wealthier white New Yorkers have been able to sit out the pandemic relatively safely, working from home and relying on home deliveries. While poorer, often non-white, residents have been forced to continue working in 'essential' jobs and traveling on public transport. In this essential work they may have to come in close contact with infected people, often without being provided with the proper protective equipment.