City data shows certain communities hardest hit by COVID-19, but S.I. info hard to come by

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As the city continues to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, certain communities are being affected more significantly than others.

In New York City, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene published limited data -- reports for 33.4% of confirmed deaths are incomplete -- on April 13 showing disproportionate percentages deaths for black and Latino people compared to their total population.

Black and Latino people make up 29% and 31.9% of the city’s confirmed deaths and account for 24.3% and 29.1% of the total population, respectively, according to the latest available city data and Census estimates.

White and Asian people make up 27.6% and 6.7% of the city’s confirmed deaths, and account for 42.7% and 13.9% of the total population, respectively, according to the same information.

A spokesman for DOHMH said numbers specific to Staten Island are not yet available, but multiple local sources said the borough’s black and Latino populations are being hit particularly hard by the virus that has killed more than 12,000 New Yorkers.

The Centers for Disease Control published data Friday that found black Americans account for about 30% of all COVID-19 cases despite accounting for just about 13% of the total population. Latinos account for about 18% of all cases, and make up 18% of the population. Only about 24% of all U.S. cases had their ethnicities identified.

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Dr. Philip Otterbeck, the chair of internal medicine at Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, said the hospital is seeing a higher number of black and Latino patients. Those patients are often more at risk due to a higher rate of preexisting conditions like diabetes and hypertension.

“Communities of color -- African American and Hispanic patients -- these folks tend to have higher rates of diseases, relative to, say, other populations,” he said. “The possession of these conditions increases a patient’s likelihood of contracting the illness.”

Otterbeck said a number of non-medical factors also put certain communities at higher risks. Generally dense populations, multi-generational families, and limited access to healthcare are some of those factors.

Comptroller Scott Stringer published a report Wednesday urging the city take further steps to aid people at-risk of contracting and dying from the disease.

His report found that the city’s black and Latino populations have higher rates of ER visits related to asthma, and more often live in overcrowded multigenerational households. The city defines overcrowded housing as more than on person per room.

“Communities that have had to breath foul air for decades are now the ones that are having deadly transmission of COVID, and we as a city have to factor in that kind of reality,” he said.

Patients who don’t have health insurance, or think their health insurance won’t cover certain treatments tend to avoid the hospital until they are sicker putting them at greater risk, Otterbeck said. He added that many patients have jobs that don’t provide sick days.

Factors like these often affect black and Latino populations at a greater rate across the country. Dr. Navarra Rodriguez, president and chief medical officer for AdvantageCare Physicians, said the pandemic is exacerbating those factors.

“The virus and this crisis have really forced us to pay more attention and shine a light on what we can do as a community and as a nation to really address those health disparities,” she said.

Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) said the lack of a public hospital means poorer Staten Islanders, even those without health insurance, have to rely on the boroughs two private systems.

Both RUMC and Staten Island University Hospital have programs that offer financial assistance for people who don’t have health insurance and are unable to pay their medical bills.

Rose along with her fellow elected officials on Staten Island had criticized the city for leaving Staten Island out of its plans to help the rest of the boroughs’ public hospitals, since the Island does not have one. On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to send more medical staff, coronavirus testing, and supplies to Staten Island’s hospitals.

A lack of access to testing has also presented challenges in determining how Staten Island’s poorer population is being affected by the virus. Outpatient facilities like the Beacon Christian Community Center have been helping to handle testing in Mariners Harbor.

The organization’s CEO, Dr. David Kim, pointed out that Staten Islanders who don’t have access to a car could not get tested at the drive-thru facility at the South Beach Psychiatric Center.

“There’s a humongous amount of fear out there,” Kim said. “I also think that there’s a tremendous lack, still, of understanding about what people need to do to learn about the disease, but also what people need to do to protect themselves from catching the disease.”

One of the communities most in-need of consumable information on the virus is the city’s population undocumented immigrants. Michelle Molina, the executive director of the Port-Richmond-based El Centro del Inmigrante, said the lack of information contributes to those people avoiding the healthcare system.

She said that some members of her organization are learning to write and read Spanish, because their dialects are unique to where they come from.

“People are feeling left out in so many different ways,” she said. “The fact that the undocumented population doesn’t have a safety net takes a really, really big toll on the community.”

Molina said the economic impact of the virus is also hitting undocumented communities particularly hard. The need for food is a growing concern, and Molina said her organization helped 160 families meet their food needs in a single day.

The city has been working to address growing concerns about food, and on outreach to communities being harder hit by the outbreak. The mayor announced Monday that the city would be launching a $10,000,000 program aimed at slowing the spread of the virus in the city’s 88-hardest-hit ZIP Codes.

“What we’re announcing today is a new campaign and this one is laser-focused on the communities that have been hardest hit and where the disparities are greatest,” he said. “We’ve got to reach out in a really compassionate open manner to communities that need a lot more information.”

On Staten Island, all of those ZIP codes being focused on make up the island’s North Shore.

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