Coronavirus Layoffs Hit Black New Yorkers Hardest: Poll

NEW YORK CITY — More Black New Yorkers have been laid off during the novel coronavirus outbreak yet remain more concerned about the dangers reopening too quickly, according to a new study.

A Siena College poll released Wednesday shows 44 percent of Black households have seen a layoff during the pandemic while just 27 percent of white households have experienced similar job loss.

Yet 84 percent of Black voters polled said they feared opening too quickly, as compared to 59 percent of white voters, said pollster Steven Greenberg.

“Clearly," said Greenberg, "the devastating health consequences of the pandemic are of greater concern to New Yorkers than the devastating economic impacts."

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Black and brown New York City dwellers have died at twice the rate of white people, the city's Health Department show.

While 12,187 out of 21,214 New York City residents estimated to have died from COVID-19 were either Black or Hispanic, 5,306 of those to lose their lives were identified as white, data show.

Black and brown New Yorkers have also experienced harsher social distancing policing, receiving 80 percent of summons and making up 90 percent of those arrested.

This poll comes as New York City readies itself to reopen in mid-June and as the rest of the state takes its first steps toward ending the lockdown, which a recent report from Comptroller Scott Stringer's office shows may have cost New York City 900,000 jobs.

Nearly 2 million New Yorkers are expected to become food insecure this year and the city faces a $9 billion deficit in its "wartime" $89.3 billion budget.

Yet the poll shows 65 percent of New York voters and 75 percent of city dwellers fear rushing reopening will cause more people to die and the economy will suffer worse consequences.

Nearly half of downstate New Yorkers know someone who has died from COVID-19, the poll found.

The stark disparities seen in New York City have spurred Gov. Andrew Cuomo to target specific low income zip codes for increased testing, he announced Tuesday.

"The infection rate is not spreading among essential workers, it's speaking among workers who have stayed home or who are unemployed," Cuomo said.

"It's spreading in the home, it's spreading in the community."

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