Black and Hispanic New Yorkers are dying from the coronavirus at higher rates than white and Asian New Yorkers, according to preliminary statistics released by City Hall on Wednesday.
City Health Department data published Wednesday shows that Hispanic New Yorkers account for 34 percent of coronavirus deaths, while black New Yorkers account for 28 percent, despite those communities making up 29 and 22 percent of the city’s population respectively.
Some elected leaders, such as Governor Andrew Cuomo, pointed out that this disparity could be due to minorities being disproportionately represented in essential positions.
Included in the essential workforce are supermarket employees. NY1 spoke to one Hispanic supermarket cashier in Staten Island who tested positive for the virus and hasn’t been able to go to work in three weeks.
She is a 47-year-old mother of two who says she contracted the coronavirus in March and was hospitalized for two days. She chose to remain anonymous out of fear of losing her job permanently.
“I couldn't breathe. I had a bad headache, a lot of pain in my bones,” she told NY1 through an interpreter. “They took care of me. They gave me my oxygen, and the second day, they sent me home.”
She has been recovering at home since and says her employer has refused to pay her despite that her absence from work has been due to being infected with COVID-19, which she believes she contracted at work. She says her employer was slow in implementing protocols to prevent the spread of the virus at the supermarket.
“The aisles are very narrow, and they haven’t taken any measures for social distancing, like telling people to not to enter so many at the same time,” she said through an interpreter.
“I feel very sad because you expect some support from your company because you know the situation we’re in here,” she added through an interpreter. “We have to work, pay rent. We have to pay utilities. We have to pay for food for our children. It’s very sad.”
In his press conference on Wednesday, Cuomo committed to more testing in minority and low-income communities, as well as research on why they’re being disproportionately affected.
“It always seems that the poorest people pay the highest price. Why is that?” Cuomo said. “Let’s figure it out. Let’s do the work. Let’s do the research. Let’s learn from this moment, and let’s learn these lessons, and let’s do it now.”