Bronx and Other Hard-Hit Communities Cry Out for COVID-19 Resources
City Limits
By Abigail Savitch- Lew
As an increasing number of reports reveal COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on low-income, majority minority areas of New York City, leaders in the South Bronx and in other communities have been demanding a more targeted response.
City data sets first made available last week show geographic disparities in case numbers and death rates. As of Wednesday morning, Bronx residents made up 26 percent of the New Yorkers who have died from COVID-19, though the borough is home to only 17 percent of the city’s population. According to zip-code level statistics from Tuesday, the top five neighborhoods with the highest number of positive cases were Corona, Borough Park, Elmhurst, the Norwood and Olinville sections of the Bronx, and Midwood—impacting areas with some of the city’s large immigrant communities as well as areas with large Orthodox Jewish communities. (Health experts, however, caution that statistics are an artifact of how many people have been tested and not fully reliable)
