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New City Stats Show 258 Upper West Siders Have Died of Covid-19; Overall Case Rate is Relatively Low

May 20, 2020 | 10:47 AM
in NEWS
61

The Upper West Side has suffered devastating losses during the Covid crisis, new city statistics show. In the neighborhood’s four zip codes, a total of 258 people have died of the disease. More than 2,000 people have tested positive, though that’s certainly an undercount — most people who got sick but were not grievously ill did not get tested during the first two months of the outbreak.

The new stats break down each zip code using several metrics. Here’s what they show:

10023

Cases: 530

Cases per 100,000 people: 879.31

Percent of people who took tests who were positive: 19.67%

Deaths: 50

Deaths per 100,000 people: 82.95

10024

Cases: 615

Cases per 100,000 people: 1072.59

Percent of people who took tests who were positive: 22.07%

Deaths: 62

Deaths per 100,000 people: 108.13

10025

Cases: 1174

Cases per 100,000 people: 1271.48

Percent of people who took tests who were positive: 25.35%

Deaths: 144

Deaths per 100,000 people: 155.96

10069

Cases: 52

Cases per 100,000 people: 820.43

Percent of people who took tests who were positive: 20.39%

Deaths: 2

Deaths per 100,000 people: 31.56

Compared to other parts of the city, the Upper West Side has a lower rate of confirmed cases. In one West Queens zip code, for instance, 4,130 per 100,000 people have tested positive. Statistics have shown that poorer communities where people may live in more crowded conditions and have jobs that put them on the front lines have been hit harder by the disease.

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61 Comments
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Mark Elliott
Mark Elliott
5 years ago

It would be interesting to know what these statistics look like with nursing home cases/deaths removed.

0
Reply
2 c
2 c
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark Elliott

It would be great to know last year statistics death on UWS Jan-April.

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Reply
UWSmaven
UWSmaven
5 years ago

Agree that with so many senior residences on the UWS, it would be very useful to know how they contributed to this tragic death rate. Anecdotally, I heard that at just the Kateri Residence — the nursing home on 87th and Riverside — there may have been up to 30 deaths, and that’s only one facility. So having those numbers could place the death toll among the general population into perspective.

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ZoomZ
ZoomZ
5 years ago

Half of these unfortunate deaths are due to Andrew Cuomo’s idiotic decree to have nursing homes take in covid-19 old people in, or else.
Thank you Gov. Cuomo.
You need to be held accountable for this.

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Rob Wolkow
Rob Wolkow
5 years ago
Reply to  ZoomZ

He should be held accountable for not banning flights from Europe or at least ensuring that passengers were screened before allowing them to leave JFK. Why do you think NYC has such a high infection and death rate compared to most other places? It is not simply ” density”.

0
Reply
Noemie
Noemie
5 years ago
Reply to  Rob Wolkow

That’s up to the federal government. Trump is 100% to blame for that. We were also one of the ports of entry during that disastrous nights that had hundreds of people waiting at customs before the borders closed.

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Reply
B.B.
B.B.
5 years ago
Reply to  ZoomZ

According to AC blame lies elsewhere.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-probe-into-nursing-home-coronavirus-deaths-ask-president-trump

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Boris
Boris
5 years ago
Reply to  B.B.

Then how did the governor of Florida manage to contain the problem much better than Cuomo? They were both faced with the same federal directives. Cuomo became a rock star for no apparent reason except that people were way too eager to hear anyone speak on a regular basis as long as it wasn’t Trump.

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Buddy H
Buddy H
5 years ago
Reply to  Boris

In the midst of the pandemic catastrophe and the tragic deaths it’s caused, including the nursing home horrors we know, it’s shocking to me that some people are not recognizing the overall superb job that Governor Cuomo has done in response to the crisis, particularly without much help from the federal so-called government. Yes, before this I was disenchanted with him for various positions and actions he’s taken over the last few years, but he’s done an amazing job of providing leadership and trying to protect New Yorkers in so many ways. It’s also unbelievable that anyone would compare him with the governor of Florida, who is doing whatever he can to emulate Trump and doing a lousy job of protecting his state’s residents, many of whom are my family. When I read some people’s comments on websites, I sometimes wonder if Russian provocateurs have planted comments on them across the country to divide our communities, and this is one of those times.

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Stay Safe, y'all
Stay Safe, y'all
5 years ago
Reply to  ZoomZ

Re: your SARCASTIC thank-you to Gov Cuomo:

THANK YOU Gov. Cuomo (NO sarcasm intended) for:
1. Your wonderful job as the ‘take-charge’ chief NYS official during this disaster;
2. Your classic “NYC-NO-B.S.” attitude during those daily televised briefings;
3) and, MOST OF ALL, how your daily performance CONTRASTED with a certain “leader” more concerned with HIS re-election than with the 90,000+ DEATHS of the citizens he was elected to protect.

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Covid Jones
Covid Jones
5 years ago
Reply to  Stay Safe, y'all

There’s no way you can look at Cuomo’s performance here as anything but incompetent.

The fact that he is marginally better than Orange Julius is meaningless.

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Reply
UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
5 years ago
Reply to  Stay Safe, y'all

It’s says quite a bit how you value how a man talks versus his actions. Cuomo talks about eating meatballs with his family and laughs with his brother on CNN, while his orders to nursing homes has resulted in the greatest New York tragedy since 9/11, possibly the greatest tragedy in the history of New York State itself. Yet you hail him as the foil to Trump. To take politics that far is shameful.

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Reply
S Ballantine
S Ballantine
5 years ago
Reply to  Stay Safe, y'all

Bravo! Well said, thank you.

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Reply
UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
5 years ago
Reply to  ZoomZ

Curtis Sliwa is urging anyone who lost a parent to corona in a nursing home to contact him, he is putting together a class action lawsuit against NY State and at Cuomo himself. WE HAD AN EMPTY HOSPITAL SHIP THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN SENT TO! They went like lambs to the slaughter!

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Reply
Please_Leave
Please_Leave
5 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

Typical UWSers. SUE,SUE,SUE.

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Reply
UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
5 years ago
Reply to  Please_Leave

nothing to do with the UWS: it’s open to anyone in New York State.

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Reply
ZoomZ
ZoomZ
5 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

Indeed –
1,000 beds in the COMFORT ship.
2,000 in the Javitz Center
1,000 beds in the hospital in Central Park.
Out of these 4,000 beds, fewer than 500 were used, and they were all available by 4.1.20
Cuomo’s decree was in effect as of 3.25.2020.
The nursing homes in NY state were forced to take the infected old people in order to free hospital beds.
Makes no sense what happened and Cuomo should be held accountable for these deaths.
The other day he said that “people die”, and no one should be prosecuted for their death. Nice going Andy baby. Real nice.
Thank you much governor. 10 years on the job and other than naming a bridge after your late (12 years governor) father, what have you really done for us? Not that the naming of the bridge was needed or called for by your people.
And – he’s a frigging rock star now. REALLY???

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Reply
David S
David S
5 years ago
Reply to  ZoomZ

This is a complicated topic. You don’t know who to spell “Javits”; what leads you to believe your qualified to render an opinion?

0
Reply
Nancy
Nancy
5 years ago
Reply to  David S

You don’t know “who” to spell Javits?

0
Reply
Nancy
Nancy
5 years ago
Reply to  David S

You don’t know how to spell Javits??

0
Reply
Ed
Ed
5 years ago
Reply to  David S

Maybe he can spell “you’re” correctly, though.

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Reply
Ann
Ann
5 years ago

So time to open back up then! We flattened the curve. Lets get on with our lives.

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Reply
Wijmlet
Wijmlet
5 years ago
Reply to  Ann

Good grief–let’s not open till things are much safer.

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Reply
John
John
5 years ago
Reply to  Wijmlet

So you folks want to stay closed to we have a cure. That could be 2 years from now so your UWS condo will be worth about 10% of its current value and we will have a tent city in Central Park. Don’t forget the bread lines

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Adam
Adam
5 years ago
Reply to  Wijmlet

Better not allow people to drive cars until there are no longer deaths from car accidents then too. There are always risks with everything and forcing people to stay home…while releasing violent criminals isnt the answer.

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Reply
mkmuws
mkmuws
5 years ago
Reply to  Adam

Yes, by all means compare everyday activities to a global pandemic caused by a new virus. You people act like you’ve never seen a public health crisis.
And I don’t know what you all are doing, but we are totally on track to reopening, metrics are laid out every day at state and local level. I love living in a place ruled by actual science and data, we are the example, not the sheep left wandering about because this federal emergency has a vacuum of leadership.

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Covid Jones
Covid Jones
5 years ago
Reply to  mkmuws

OK:

https://assets.realclear.com/images/51/510639_5_.jpeg

(TL;DR: data from the UK. The risk of dying from Covid, at every age bracket, is less than or equal to the risk of dying from…anything…in an average year.)

We have massively over-reacted.

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sam
sam
5 years ago
Reply to  Ann

do you think that it’s possible to “open back up” with only people on the UWS? do you understand the logistics of actually staffing the stores and restaurants in our neighborhood? because I can guarantee that the folks making crappy wages at whatever store you’ve decided you can’t live without aren’t paying UWS rents.

This is an article about our privilege as relatively wealthy people with a comparatively high amount of space compared to others around NYC. Not a reason to selfishly (and short-sightedly) attempt to abandon our neighbors in other parts of the city to whom we are inexorably connected in myriad ways.

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Gaetangela
Gaetangela
5 years ago
Reply to  sam

Thank You,Sam!for some rational and compssionate commentary here! sincerely

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Common sense
Common sense
5 years ago
Reply to  sam

This is completely backwards, however well intentioned. Those not well off and trying to make ends meet are desperate for commerce to resume — not the affluent consumers but the less privileged and the small business owners — want to open up so they can pay for rent and food for their families and not go bankrupt. It is the affluent folks who can afford to stay home for a while longer.

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Wijmlet
Wijmlet
5 years ago
Reply to  sam

Go, Sam!

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Reply
richayden
richayden
5 years ago
Reply to  sam

Those people on the bikes delivering your food don’t live in the UWS

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Reply
UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
5 years ago
Reply to  Ann

Agreed Ann. If you’re over 65 – 70, you should stay home as much as possible to protect yourself. Everyone else should go back to work. Open up NYC so people can go back to work! Stimulus checks are not the answer!

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Reply
Parker
Parker
5 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

I’m really interested to know what the opposition is to New York’s metrics for reopening?

https://forward.ny.gov/regional-monitoring-dashboard

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Reply
UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
5 years ago
Reply to  Parker

Every day, every week that goes by, people are losing their businesses and jobs. Domestic violence goes up, as does child abuse, addiction to liquor, suicides, and on and on. NYC economy must re-open ASAP. It is destroying more lives than it is saving. Yes, social distancing, mask wearing, included in the opening up. NOT EVERYONE HAS A PAID UP CONDO OR HAS BEEN ON RENT CONTROL SINCE 1980.

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Read it
Read it
5 years ago

Do the rates “per 100,000 people” take into account how many people in more affluent zip codes on the UWS and elsewhere have left the area? Unlikely, so the real effective rates would be higher . In the poorer and more hard hit areas, it would be more accurate

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Reply
m.pipik
m.pipik
5 years ago

Look at this listing of US population density by zip code.

https://zipatlas.com/us/zip-code-comparison/population-density.htm

Notice which areas have the highest densities.

Even with a loss of 30% of our UWS population we’d still be way up there.

Read the 3rd paragraph down in the section

Pentagon Strives to Admit Patients Faster:

https://presstories.com/2020/04/04/1000-bed-navy-hospital-ship-treats-only-20-patients/

Open bays. You want to send lambs to the slaughter?

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oldtimeUWSer
oldtimeUWSer
5 years ago

As of 5/19 state data, the Riverside Nursing home counted 42 confirmed and 17 suspected, it’s in 10024. Would be interested to know if that’s in the 62 because of what it obviously implies about the rest of the zip code.

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Some guy
Some guy
5 years ago

The statics are not fully accurate. My neighbor with his wife and 2 teenage kids got the virus and they did not go to any doctor. My wife got the virus and tested positive at CityMD i think I got it also. My other neighbor died from the virus in Queens but lives in the UWS. But she was registered with a Queens address

I personally think we should open up. We are near the bottom of the mountain. This lockdown is hurting businesses.

The virus will continue to be incharge until a vaccine is developed.

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Reply
JL
JL
5 years ago
Reply to  Some guy

We do need to take tenuous steps, but we need to be clear about having effective TRACKING in place when flare ups happen (not an if).

It’s extremely disheartening to have the 3 people in charge not be on the same page even about simple things like “masks”.

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Sam S
Sam S
5 years ago

Meanwhile the Upper West Side is going to hell in a handbasket. The boutique hotels have been turned into homeless shelters and the streets are now filled with loud, yelling, often times harassing individuals who are not social distancing nor wearing masks. Columbus Avenue in the West 70’s is now beyond sketchy, even in the daytime. De Blasio’s “reimagining” of the city is taking us back to the dark days.

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Maria Dering
Maria Dering
5 years ago
Reply to  Sam S

It would be interesting to get more first-hand observations about this development posted here. Are the problems mainly around the Belleclaire? I don’t see the same problem on Columbus Ave between 72-74 and I walk there every other day or so. This morning, mostly everyone was wearing a mask except a young couple who had them slung down to have a smoke.

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Leslie
Leslie
5 years ago
Reply to  Sam S

You are absolutely right. People have been transferred from city shelters where covid-19 is common to our neighborhood hotels with no testing requirement. Profitable for hotel owners,unsafe for residents of this densely-packed neighborhood. Can’t imagine who thought this was a good idea.

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John Keynes
John Keynes
5 years ago

Things may get worse if we still don’t take it seriously. Wearing masks when going out and washing hands frequently is not only to protect us, but also to pretect others. https://www.epidemiology.amotx.com they still get stocks in PPEs, individual shall prepare some and communities can organize the purchasing thing .

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Reply
Diane
Diane
5 years ago

I agree we are nearly ready to open up, because we appeared to have slowed the spread tremendously. People complaining that almost all of the deaths are among the elderly are ignoring the positive benefits of being shut down since about March 20. Demographics would be different had we not. You are also missing the fact that the illness itself is terrible, and far more people would’ve fallen seriously sick had we not shut down. ( I also vehemently disagree that Columbus in the 70s is now sketchy. I’m not on it every day, and feel completely comfortable )

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Covid Jones
Covid Jones
5 years ago
Reply to  Diane

The statistics are the same in every country, region, state, city or municipality, regardless of lockdown policy: young people are overwhelmingly likely (>99.9%) to have nothing more than a mild illness.

Stop spreading fear.

0
Reply
Diane
Diane
5 years ago

Please remember that the elderly are only more likely to die, tragically. If you look at confirmed cases it’s almost exactly even from age 45 and up. That’s a really big problem as we start to open up. Even though 80% of people “resolve at home”, a good number of them appear to get very sick. For several weeks. And we don’t know the long-term impact of that. Let’s continue to show the world what good neighbors NYers can be, and watch out for each other by wearing face coverings and maintaining social distance as we gradually open.

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Reply
C
C
5 years ago

Any ideas as to why 10025 has had so many more cases than the other zips?

0
Reply
mkmuws
mkmuws
5 years ago
Reply to  C

Less affluent.

0
Reply
CWR
CWR
5 years ago

Inaccurate numbers .
Many people who has COVID never went and got tested and stayed home recovering with their primary care physicians help over with telemedicine phone and video conferencing .

My Primary care physician who is on the upper West side said he had 30 patients never got tested. I was already sick with all the symptoms and had no way to go out for a test. Took me 6 weeks to recover at home.

Not sure if we all got counted.

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Reply
CB
CB
5 years ago

If 20% of the NYC population, or 1,700,000 people got Covid-19 so far, and only 15,500 have died, that makes a .9% death rate. That is just a bit less than 1 in 100. A Bloomberg article titled “99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says” states that 99% of those who died has underlying conditions and that the average of death was a whopping 79.5 years old. That is the AVERAGE. I personally think that we need to be VERY careful and that schools should go online 100% (if for no reason other than to end bullying and what i consider is a very net negative effect from school), but shouldn’t we be getting better statistics and a more realistic view of just how dangerous this virus is? How has this become a political issue? The whole thing really bothers me.

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Reply
CB
CB
5 years ago

Here is the question:

Apparently, the death rate is .9% (15,500 nyc deaths / (8,500,00 * 20% antibody positive nyc residents) or 1 in 100 people.

The average age of death, if similar to Italy, is 79 years old and 99% are those with underlying conditions .

The question is: GIVEN THOSE NUMBERS, does it make sense to keep the city shutdown and to deal with the significant implications to peoples livelihoods, until there is a vaccine or a medicine (either of which may never arrive in the next 2 years) or does it make sense to open things back up and be careful as we ride through this and go from a 20% antibody positive rate to a 60% rate and hopefully achieve herd immunity. The BIGGER question: can people answer this for themselves without checking with their tribal political talking points for guidance?

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Linda
Linda
5 years ago

Would like to know more about what is included in “confirmed” cases. I know many people who were never tested for COVID19- tests were only available at the hospitals and even in many cases people were turned away.
Many people who were not tested originally tested positive for antibodies.

0
Reply
Mai
Mai
5 years ago

Why does zip code 10025 have so very many more cases and deaths than the rest of the UWS?

0
Reply
Alan UWS
Alan UWS
5 years ago
Reply to  Mai

The Douglass Houses, a large high rise NYCHA complex, is in zip code 10025. It extends from Amsterdam Avenue to Manhattan Avenue and from 100th to 104th Street. Many of the families there are of low income and live in small apartments, similarly to many who live in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, where the incidence and death tolls are the highest in the city.

0
Reply
5A
5A
5 years ago
Reply to  Alan UWS

NYCHA housing is NOT “small apartments.” They are actually quite large, but poorly maintained and often the building hallways & elevators are dangerous. NYCHA residents are NOT living in cramped quarters like most NYers, but I would not trade my tiny apt for one in a housing project.

0
Reply
UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
5 years ago
Reply to  Mai

nursing home on 106th and others?

0
Reply
mkmuws
mkmuws
5 years ago
Reply to  Mai

Less affluent.

0
Reply
CityGirl57
CityGirl57
5 years ago
Reply to  Mai

Are there a higher concentration of nursing homes in 10025? Perhaps that would account for the greater numbers ?

0
Reply
Daisy
Daisy
5 years ago
Reply to  CityGirl57

There are at least two nursing homes in 10025 with over 100 deaths (assumed) between them plus significant density in several sections of the zip code.

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Reply
C M
C M
5 years ago

10025 has almost twice as many cases as the next greatest zip code. Why? I’m sure nursing homes play some part and I read another comment mentioning density, but there’s quite the gap. I’d like to see data on the relative density of low-incoming housing (developments and single buildings). I’d guess that explains the bulk of the cases because it would confirm existing data which shows this disease is disproportionately affecting poor communities (which of course also share racial correlates, too). And why’s that? In terms of epidemiology? Assuming the age demographics are roughly standard for the disease, might it be that “essential workers” are bringing it home to their communities and family members? To the vulnerable we speak of protecting? While the rest of us get reap fuller benefits from the effects of social distancing?

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