Black, Hispanic New Yorkers Are Dying at High Rates of Covid-19

(Bloomberg) -- Black and Hispanic New Yorkers are dying of Covid-19 at a higher rate than white New Yorkers, a trend that's much more pronounced for black people living outside of New York City. 

New York released race-based data Wednesday amid mounting pressure for the government to give a better picture of how the virus is affecting minority communities throughout the U.S. When it comes to fatalities, Hispanic people in New York City made up 34% of the deaths while comprising 29% of the population and black people made up 28% of coronavirus deaths while being 22% of the population.

In broader New York state the picture is much worse: black people make up 18% of deaths while comprising 9% of the population.

A handful of cities and states have released health outcomes by race and ethnicity, but New York, as the U.S. epicenter of the virus, includes the most fatalities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has so far not put out any country-wide statistics of the kind. 

Amid pressure from groups such as the American Medical Association and mounting evidence that coronavirus is disproportionately killing black people across America, President Donald Trump this week said federal level data is coming. “We’re going to have statistics over the next, probably, two to three days,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday. 

“Clear data on our patients’ access to timely testing, clinical encounters, and mortality rates will help to best prepare our physician members to coordinate medical resources to leverage the greatest and most equitable level of care possible for all patients in a timely manner," reads a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar signed by the AMA, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Family Physicians, among others.

New York's data is not as stark as some other hard-hit parts of the U.S. In states like Louisiana, for example, black people make up 70% of coronavirus deaths while they account for only 32% of the population.

The data released by New York also included a breakdown of co-morbidities. Of 5,489 deaths in the state, 86.2% of people who died had at least one other pre-existing condition, such as hypertension or diabetes. New York City’s Kings and Queens counties, the data show, have been hit particularly hard, reporting over 1,000 deaths each. 

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