Sections in Queens, Hunts Point in the Bronx and East New York and Brownsville in Brooklyn had the lowest percentage of residents who received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to new data that the city’s Department of Health released on Tuesday. market . Manhattan had the highest vaccination rate. South Bronx, Central Brooklyn and parts of Queens were left behind.
Corona, Queens – once part of the epicenter of the city’s coronavirus outbreak – had the lowest partial vaccination rate in the city, 2.7%. Only 1.9% of adult residents in the neighborhood were fully vaccinated with two doses.
Areas predominantly populated by people of color – Hunts Point, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, East New York, Cypress Hills, South Jamaica, Springfield Gardens, St. Albans, Rosedale and Laurelton – showed between 3.1% and 3.4% residents with at least one dose. Census data that analyze demographic data by postal code show that these neighborhoods are predominantly filled with black or Latino residents. A section of Midtown that is predominantly white reported similar vaccine coverage, but was an exception to most white neighborhoods in the five districts.
City Island and Breezy Point rank highest, with about one in four partially vaccinated residents, closely followed by the combined communities of Bellerose and Douglaston-Little Neck of Queens. About one in ten people on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side were also shot at least.
Some of the postal code data revealed disparities that the city saw during the pandemic in which wealthier white communities do better than low-income neighborhoods of color. Last month, demographic data from the mayor’s office showed that for every black or Latino New Yorker who was vaccinated, three white residents received a dose.
“A lot of this has to do with underlying painful disparities to begin with and inequalities to begin with,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters during a news conference on Tuesday announcing the statistics. “The people who have the most privileges are the most capable of navigating this process. People who have more confidence in the vaccine will make more efforts to get it ”.
When accounting for revenue, those who earn more money in the city receive more doses. For those in postal codes with an average household income of about $ 66,000, the total vaccination rate was 6.3% – almost double the rate for neighborhoods below that annual income, according to a Gothamist analysis. Dr. Torian Easterling, the city’s health department director of actions, said the data would provide a “roadmap” to point out how to continue to reduce vaccine inequalities.
Several neighborhoods in Manhattan with income levels between $ 100,000 and $ 150,000 had full two-dose vaccination rates between 7.5% and 15%. Although the connection was not universal, several neighborhoods in the Bronx had 1.4% to 3.7% of fully vaccinated adults, where the income was less than $ 42,000.
There is still no trend among the worst-hit or lightest neighborhoods in terms of mortality. But the total vaccination rate jumped from 4.9% to 6.3% between neighborhoods above and below the average mortality rate of around 101 per 100,000 people. The data do not reveal the percentage of eligible residents compared to those who were vaccinated.
De Blasio insisted that the vaccine program was designed with New York’s historic health disparities in mind and with sufficient vaccine doses – he says about half a million a week – the disparities would be mitigated. But he also blamed the vaccine’s hesitation and distrust for exacerbating the shortcomings of those being vaccinated.
Vaccination sites have been set up in recent days in the Bronx, Yankee Stadium and Queens’ Citi Field, to help neighborhood residents have access to the vaccine. “We need supplies and time to gain people’s confidence and comfort with the vaccine,” added de Blasio.
Easterling said he heard concerns about a COVID-19 vaccine regarding the speed with which the vaccines were developed and the impacts on fertility, although the data shows that the drugs are safe for all eligible.