The Bronx has nearly twice as many COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations as Manhattan. These charts reveal why.
Holly Secon,Abby Narishkin,Clancy Morgan
- Across the US, the coronavirus is hitting some communities harder than others.
- In New York City, those disparities are evident across two boroughs: the Bronx and Manhattan.
- Even though Manhattan has more people, the Bronx has more cases and more deaths per capita.
- Income inequality, housing issues, food deserts, and poor clinical care have made it difficult for the Bronx to battle the outbreak.
This pandemic does not affect all Americans equally. The coronavirus has spread through urban areas faster than rural areas, and has disproportionately affected African-American and Hispanic communities.
Even in New York City, stark differences are visible between outbreaks in different boroughs. Take Manhattan and the Bronx: While the former has about 13% more people, the latter has more cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
The reasons for this have to do with underlying systemic inequalities already present in the city. On average, Manhattan residents have higher incomes and better access to healthcare. Parts of the Bronx, meanwhile, face food deserts, income inequality, public housing that's in poor condition, and low-quality clinical care. The borough is also home to more frontline workers and subway riders.
The following graphs show why two communities only about 10 miles apart have faced such different situations.
Read the original article on Business InsiderIn 2019, Manhattan's population was about 13% higher than that of the Bronx.
But far more people have gotten infected, been hospitalized, and died from COVID-19 in the Bronx than in Manhattan.
A closer look at this data offers some explanations for these differences, and shows how this disease is not "the great equalizer" that many consider it to be.
One factor is income — the Bronx is the poorest borough in the city, while Manhattan is the richest.
The Bronx's median income is $38,000, compared to Manhattan's $82,000, according to the census.
Almost 60% of people in the Bronx pay more than they can afford for housing, which has led to more multigenerational housing arrangements and more residents in public housing.
About one-fourth of the city's approximately 400,000 public-housing residents live in the Bronx. More than one-fifth of public-housing tenants are over the age of 62, according to The City.
Manhattan has more than 350,000 more housing units than the Bronx; fewer people live in each Manhattan unit, on average.
On average, two people live in a single unit in Manhattan. In the Bronx, it's 2.8. More people in close quarters can mean a higher likelihood of virus transmission.
Many residents in the Bronx deal with lower-quality housing infrastructure, too, with maintenance problems like leaks, rats, cracks, and plumbing issues.
Such challenges make it more difficult to shelter in place at home.
On average, only 9% of Americans who make less than $33,000 a year — the orange-shaded neighborhoods in the Bronx — are able to work from home.
Of people who make at least $79,000 a year — the dark blue neighborhoods in Manhattan — 60% can work from home.
Millions of New Yorkers are considered essential workers, including grocery-store clerks, transit employees, trash collectors, and healthcare workers.
Essential workers make up around 25% of the city's workforce. About 17% of frontline workers in New York City live in the Bronx, while just 12% are in Manhattan.
In New York, 55% of essential workers use public transportation. Amid the pandemic, subway ridership has dropped across the city, but not by the same amount.
Trains to and from the Bronx can still be packed, especially given reduced subway service.
Plus, people from the Bronx face longer commutes than people in Manhattan — on average, they spend 12.7 minutes standing body-to-body with other riders.
The Bronx also has more COVID-19 hospitalizations than Manhattan: As of May 26, the Bronx had 11,331, while Manhattan had 7,250.
Even before the pandemic began, residents of Manhattan had a higher life expectancy than Bronx residents.
Factors like less access to high-quality clinical care, healthy food, and clean air impact public health overall — and therefore the likelihood of severe coronavirus cases. Access to grocery stores and gyms play a role, too.
What's more, the Bronx has higher overall rates of preexisting conditions like asthma, heart disease, and obesity than Manhattan does. These underlying health issues increase the risk of a severe COVID-19 infection.
Take obesity, for example, which is a coronavirus risk factor and is linked to unhealthy diets and a lack of exercise.
The Bronx has historically had some of the worst food deserts in the country — areas in which it's hard to find affordable and healthy food.
About 87% of kids in the Bronx rely on free or reduced school lunches, which can be high in salt and fat.
The Bronx has almost double the number of food stamps per individual compared to Manhattan. All of these factors have undermined public health in the Bronx, leading to unhealthy eating patterns and high rates of obesity and diabetes.
Asthma, too, raises one's risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19. Asthma rates are higher in the Bronx than any other borough in New York City.
Pollution is a major cause of asthma, an issue that particularly affects the Bronx.
The South Bronx even has a place nicknamed "Asthma Alley," where asthma hospitalizations were 27 times higher than in the rest of the city.
The area is surrounded by four highways as well as sanitation and sewage facilities. Trucks come and go from distribution centers, food wholesalers, the Fresh Direct distribution center, and the Wall Street Journal and New York Post printing presses in that small area.
In addition, access to medical professionals is not equal across the Bronx and Manhattan
In Manhattan, there's one physician for every 750 people, but the Bronx only has one for every 1,770.
Manhattan has almost double the number of hospitals for a population that's only 13% larger.
Plus, there are fewer hospital beds in the Bronx — 2.7 beds per 1,000 people. Manhattan has 6.4 beds per 1,000 people, according to Bloomberg.
Quality healthcare also isn't as available in the Bronx. On average, Manhattan hospitals received three out of five stars while Bronx hospitals received 1.2 out of five.
These ratings are based on hospital information provided by Medicare. They suggest that the Bronx's hospitals are some of the worst nationally . The Jacobi hospital, for example, is one of the five worst-rated in the entire US.
As of May 26 — the latest data available — Manhattan's death toll was 2,868, while the Bronx hit 4,417 deaths.
As of May 16 — the most recent available data on coronavirus deaths that involved comorbidities — 3,062 people who died of COVID-19 in the Bronx had underlying health conditions, compared to 1,592 in Manhattan.
When you break down New York City's death toll, people of color have been disproportionately killed by the coronavirus.
Black patients account for 28% of deaths in New York City but 22% of the population. Hispanic patients make up 30% of deaths and about 29% of the population. White patients make up 25% of deaths, compared with 32% of the population.
The Bronx's population is 85% black or Hispanic, whereas in Manhattan, 64% of the population is white.
These disparities are not just true in New York — similar trends are seen across the country.
About 83% of people in Georgia hospitalized with COVID-19 during March were black, according to a CDC report released last month — but black people account for just 32% of the state's overall population.
There were 4,842 cases among the Navajo Nation's 173,000 residents as of Wednesday — marking the US's highest per capita coronavirus infection rate.
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