The death toll among Lower Manhattan residents from the pandemic coronavirus has grown by three additional lost lives, to a total of 67. This represents a 4.6 percent increase from the Broadsheet’s last update, on May 22. Statistics released by the City’s Department of Health (DOH), which quantify mortality and infection metrics, indexed by zip code, continue to show that only two zip codes (among 178 residential districts) throughout the five boroughs have registered no deaths at all from COVID-19 (the disease caused by the pandemic coronavirus), and both are located Downtown: 10280 (southern Battery Park City) and 10006 (the Greenwich South neighborhood).
The death totals for Lower Manhattan necessarily exclude an unknown number of additional fatalities (likely to run into dozens more), among members of the community who worked Downtown (such as restaurant owners, and healthcare providers), but resided elsewhere.
But the average death rate for the eight zip codes that comprise Lower Manhattan now comes to 68.43 per 100,000 residents (a standard benchmark use by health statisticians). There are neighborhoods in Queens and the Bronx where the same gauge registers up to seven times higher than the Downtown’s local death rate.
In a separate but related development, the DOH has also released updated statistics for the local, overall case count. (All metrics cited in this story are current as of Thursday afternoon, May 28.) In this tally, a total of 783 residents of Lower Manhattan are confirmed to have been infected by the pandemic coronavirus.
This updated tally for confirmed cases of coronavirus indicates that the total number of local residents known to be infected has jumped by 27 new cases, or approximately 3.57 percent, since, when the total number of Lower Manhattan cases was 756 patients. This does not necessarily mean that the local rate of infection is growing at 3.57 percent per week, but may be a reflection more patients being tested.
According to the DOH data, the local infection rates and death totals (outlined out by zip code) break down as follows:
• 10280/Battery Park City South (below Brookfield Place): 0 deaths and 50 confirmed cases, an increase of 7 new cases and 0 additional deaths since May 22
• 10282/Battery Park City North (above Brookfield Place): 15 deaths and 70 confirmed cases, an increase of 2 new cases and 1 additional death
• 10007/Southern Tribeca (West Street to Broadway, north of Vesey Street and south of Chambers Street): 3 deaths and 49 confirmed cases, an increase of 0 new cases and 0 additional deaths
• 10013/Northern Tribeca (north of Chambers Street and south of Canal Street): 19 deaths and 255 confirmed cases, an increase of 12 new cases and 1 additional death
• 10006/Greenwich South (Broadway to West Street, south of Vesey Street and north of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel): 0 deaths and 24 confirmed cases, an increase of 1 new case and 0 additional deaths
• 10004/Southern FiDi (West Street to the East River, south of Beaver Street): 1 death and 31 confirmed cases, an increase of 1 new case and 0 additional deaths
• 10005/Eastern FiDi (Broadway to the East River, south of Maiden Lane, north of Beaver Street): 2 deaths and 60 confirmed cases, an increase of 1 new case and 0 additional deaths
• 10038/the Civic Center and Seaport (Broadway to the East River, north of Maiden Lane and stretching a few blocks beyond the Brooklyn Bridge): 27 deaths and 244 confirmed cases, an increase of 10 new cases and 1 additional death
These data also indicate that, among all Downtown residents who have been tested for coronavirus, 16.44 percent have been confirmed to be infected. This metric represents an additional falloff from the May 22 data, when 21 percent of all local patients who had been tested were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. (Neither of these yardsticks can be extrapolated to mean that the similar percentages of all local residents are infected, because these tests — which are in seriously short supply — are being selectively administered to patients with severe symptoms, or those who are deemed to be at heightened risk of exposure.)
The combined population of these eight zip codes is approximately 81,000 residents. The total of 783 confirmed cases translates into an overall rate of infection of roughly nine-tenths of one percent for all Lower Manhattan residents. This indicates that local infection rates have risen slightly since the start of May, when the overall rate of infection for Lower Manhattan residents stood at roughly eight-tenths of one percent. The overall death rate for Lower Manhattan residents due to the pandemic coronavirus comes to an infinitesimally small eight one-hundredths of one percent.
Matthew Fenton
