You are reading

Mayor to Release Data Providing the Race and Ethnicity of New Yorkers Who Have Contracted COVID-19

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio

April 7, 2020 By Christian Murray

Mayor Bill de Blasio said today that the city will soon release data that tracks the race and ethnicity of New Yorkers who have contracted COVID-19.

De Blasio said that people of color and those who reside in lower-income communities are getting hit harder by the coronavirus than elsewhere.

“This disease is affecting people disproportionately in lower-income communities” and in “communities of color,” de Blasio said. “The extent of that disparity we’re still fully trying to understand. And the data we’ll give you will help us understand.”

The mayor noted that the data is preliminary, since it isn’t as easy to get in the midst of the crisis as age and gender.

The mayor has been slow to release neighborhood and ethnic data—despite multiple requests in recent weeks from reporters and elected officials. The only raw data that was provided until April 1 was on a borough basis.

The city released raw data on who had tested positive by zip code for coronavirus for the first time last week. That data, however, does not provide a breakdown of the race and ethnicity of the victims—although the zip codes heavily affected are the immigrant neighborhoods of Corona, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst—as well as in the orthodox Jewish areas of Brooklyn such as Borough Park and Midwood.

De Blasio’s decision to release the data follows a letter sent Thursday by public advocate Jumaane Williams calling for its release.

This morning Comptroller Scott Stringer also sent a letter to de Blasio—also addressed to Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot—urging him to release the demographic data.

“I am writing today to add my voice to those urging the city to release demographic data that reveals the race and the ethnicity of those who have been afflicted by the COVID-19 virus in New York City,” Stringer wrote.

Stringer noted that the virus is deepening the social and economic inequalities in the city, noting that it is disproportionally affecting lower-income people of color.

Stringer is also calling on the city to release data pertaining to the occupation of those affected by COVID-19.

He said that many of the frontline workers who are most at risk are people of color who work as EMTs, doctors, nurses, pharmacy and grocery workers and building employees.

Stringer said the city needs the racial and ethnic data in order to “identify and address the health inequity that plague so many of our communities.”

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Myrtle Avenue honors late BID founder with plaza co-naming

Jun. 30, 2025 By QNS News Team

Council Member Robert Holden and local leaders officially co-named the 71st Avenue Plaza at Myrtle Avenue as Herman Hochberg Plaza last week, honoring a longtime civic leader and businessman whose decades of service helped shape Ridgewood’s commercial and community landscape.

Resorts World officially submits bid to expand Queens casino into $5.5B full-scale resort

Resorts World New York City put all its chips on the table when it officially submitted its bid to the New York State Gaming Commission hours ahead of the Friday deadline, the latest step toward unlocking an eye-popping $5.5 billion vision to build a world-class integrated resort in Southeast Queens.

Building on fifteen years of community partnerships, the 5.6 million-square-foot proposal to expand the city’s only casino would create thousands of union jobs, generate billions of dollars for education and transit, and deliver a new era of inclusive growth for Southeast Queens and expansive public amenities.