This post was originally published on this site
New York — It was easy to forget why they were wearing masks.
The fourth day of protests against police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody, turned into violence on Sunday night as some protestors broke into luxury downtown stores. These scenes were played out across the country. Peaceful protesters marched down Columbus Avenue on Sunday afternoon holding placards and wearing #BlackLivesMatters T-shirts. It was, perhaps, the largest group of people gathered in one place since social distancing began.
Even during the march, they wore face masks. The wait, of course, is not over. At least, not yet. New York City remains Ground Zero for coronavirus. Coronavirus deaths here have long surpassed the number of New York fatalities on 9/11. As a blanket of silence covers the streets during the day and people have started wearing masks in public, hospitals are grappling with the chaos created by an unseen virus and lack of personal protective equipment.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths continues to rise. As of Monday, there are 1,791,163 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., and 104,399 deaths, and 29,784 deaths in New York, the largest of any state in the country. Worldwide, there were 6,198,167 confirmed cases and 6,198,167 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
A Black Lives Matter protester raises his fist during a march to honor George Floyd in Manhattan on May 31 in New York City.
Getty Images
Like many parts of the country, people in New York, which remains the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, wear homemade masks, meanwhile, while some nurses wear garbage bags. Among the cities where black residents have been hard-hit: New York, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago and Milwaukee: 42% were black, according to a recent Associated Press analysis. African-Americans account for roughly 21% of the total population in the areas covered by the AP’s analysis.
Black and Latino people in New York City are dying at twice the rate of Caucasians, preliminary data released last month showed. Hispanic residents were dying at a rate of 21.3 per 100,000, black and African-American people were dying at a rate of 23.1 per 100,000, other non-Hispanic/Latino, non-white races were dying at a rate of 40.2 per 100,000. Meanwhile, white people were dying at a rate of 15.7 per 100,000 and Asians at a rate of 9.1 per 100,000.
“We’re seeing this around the country,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat said when the figures on racial disparity began trickling out. He said the same pattern was found in major cities across the U.S., some worse than New York City. You know, it always seems that the poorest people pay the highest price. Why is that? Whatever the situation is.” Cuomo said he would investigate why people of color were so badly affected by the virus, and said an increase in testing would help.
Kay, a nurse at The Brooklyn Hospital, wearing a garbage bag in lieu of personal protective equipment.
CBS News
Kay, a nurse at The Brooklyn Hospital who did not want to give her last name for fear of reprisals from relatives of patients who are not allowed to visit their loved ones, told CBS reporter David Begnaud, who was covered in a hazmat decontamination suit and large face shield. “It’s like something out of the Twilight Zone.” She added, “I’d like a mask like yours. We should all have masks like yours, and that white suit you have on? What do I have on? What is this?” It was a garbage bag.
The Associated Press analysis examined the racial disparities of COVID-19 cases and deaths nationwide. It looked at more than 4,450 deaths and 52,000 COVID-19 cases from across the country, and relied on the handful of state and local governments that have released victims’ race. “Everywhere we look, the coronavirus is devastating our communities,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement.
“The uprising spreading across this country is fueled by systemic racial issues,” Johnson said in response to the death of George Floyd. The policeman who was filmed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck has since been charged with murder and manslaughter. “These issues have now manifested into anger, sadness, fear, and confusion. Many throughout the country are left to consider at this moment after watching the horrific footage of George Floyd: When is enough, enough?”
Office of New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the city is still on track to embark upon Phase 1 on the reopening on June 8. There have been 208,085 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York City, although the total figure is likely far more than that when accounting for asymptomatic or mild cases, according to The New York Times. South Bronx, North and Southeast Queens, and Staten Island had the highest cases and also have the lowest median incomes and largest households sizes, it added.
Some 75% of all frontline workers are people of color, including 82% of cleaning services employees, according to a report by the New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. More than 40% of transit employees are black, while over 60% of cleaning workers are Hispanic. At least 123 transit workers in the city have died from the virus. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s subway and buses, pledged to give death benefits to the families of COVID-19 victims.
“Living in the outer reaches of the city and traveling to work sites scattered throughout the five boroughs, day-to-day commuting is an arduous task for many frontline workers. The average frontline worker, in fact, will spend 45 minutes traveling to work each day and another 45 minutes traveling back home to their families and loved ones,” the Comptroller added. Brooklyn is home to the largest share of frontline workers (28%), followed by Queens (22%) and the Bronx follow (17%).
Office of New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer
What’s more, African-American COVID-19 patients have 2.7 times the odds of being admitted to the hospital compared to non-Hispanic white patients after controlling for sex, age, income and co-morbid health conditions, according to a separate study in the latest edition of the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs conducted by researchers affiliated with Sutter Health, a nonprofit health system in northern California.
The researchers, who analyzed 1,052 confirmed coronavirus cases between Jan. 1 and April 8, said there could be a number of potential explanations for this gap, including that African-American patients might have “more advanced or severe illness at the time of presenting for COVID-19 testing and medical care” and cited “barriers to timely access to care” that could create circumstances in which patients view delaying care as the only available and/or most sensible option.
The Dow Jones Industrial Index DJIA, +0.25% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.23% were slightly higher amid worries over a deterioration in U.S.-China relations, while investors weighed the impact of the nationwide rioting over the death of George Floyd and possible progress in COVID-19 vaccine research. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMM20, +0.09% rose 38 points, or 0.1%, at 25,416, while S&P 500 futures ESM20, +0.14% was up 6 points, or 0.2%, to 3,048, while Nasdaq-100 futures NQM20, -0.00% gained 12 points, or 0.1%, to 9,572.
Office of New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer
