See a map of vaccination rates for New York City

With just over 100 days of vaccination campaign in New York City, 30 percent of adults and half of those 65 and older have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Millions more still need to be vaccinated, and the city will have to overcome already significant disparities in vaccination rates between neighborhoods and demographic groups.

White and Asian New Yorkers were vaccinated at higher rates than black and Latino residents, who are more likely to die or be hospitalized with Covid-19 in New York City and across the country.

Some of the highest vaccination rates are in the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods – places where residents were most likely to leave the city at the start of the pandemic. In parts of the Upper West Side and Upper East Side, about half of the adults received at least one injection. In Corona, Queens, where the virus was much more deadly, only 19% did so.

Fees vary in each of the five districts. Nine of the top ten postal codes in which residents received at least one injection are in Manhattan, which has more vaccine distribution locations than any other neighborhood.

Twenty percent of adults in Manhattan were fully vaccinated, compared with 12 percent of adults in Brooklyn.

One of the clearest demographic trends about who is being vaccinated is age.

There are more than 1.2 million New Yorkers aged 65 and over, rivaling the entire population of Dallas. The elderly were among the first in line for the vaccine and, in general, areas of the city with more older residents have a higher vaccination percentage than others.

Although about half of all these New Yorkers have taken at least one dose, about 70% of people over 65 are not yet fully vaccinated, suggesting that the city still has a long way to go, even with the increase eligibility for younger groups.

The other clear demographic trend is race and ethnicity.

Neighborhoods with mostly white residents, such as Upper east and Higher West Side, Riverdale in the Bronx, Breezy Point in Queens, mid-island and the south coast of Staten Island, they are surpassing city averages.

Most black and Latino neighborhoods in large areas of Queens, Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan and the southern Bronx are in some cases 20 to 30 percentage points behind the neighborhoods at the top of the list. Morris Park, Pelham Bay, and Co-op City in the Bronx are exceptions. People of color make up the majority of these neighborhoods, where more than 35% of residents received at least one dose.

The reasons for the disparities vary and not all will be clear simply by looking at a map. Many elderly people are stuck at home or have trouble navigating complex and confusing websites to apply for the vaccine (obstacles not just for the elderly, in fact).

For black and Latino New Yorkers, some research has shown higher rates of hesitation compared to a vaccine, although barriers to access are an equal, if not greater, challenge.

For those who do not speak English, language barriers can create fear and confusion. For the poorest residents, it is simply more difficult (and more expensive) to take a few hours or a day or two off work to get an injection.

The city has an average of 60,000 to 70,000 photos a day. At that rate, it will take months to reach the remaining seven million New Yorkers, including children, who are not yet eligible for any vaccine.

Tracking Coronavirus