NYCHA Coronavirus Concerns Remain Weeks Into Pandemic

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Even as a trio of prominent New York City politicians passed out food and protective supplies to Marcy Houses residents in Bed-Stuy, many things about the coronavirus' impact on NYCHA residents remain unclear.

No one knows exactly how many NYCHA residents have contracted the virus. No one can tell how many of them went to hospitals. And, finally, there's no tally yet of how many residents are in the city's official death toll — 17,866 confirmed and probable deaths, as of Thursday.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Mayor Bill de Blasio respectively recently made prominent calls for action and plans to increase novel coronavirus testing for NYCHA residents. They were joined Tuesday with Councilman Robert Cornegy — who had contracted the virus himself — at NYCHA's Marcy Houses in Bed-Stuy to pass out masks and food.

"We're helping communities hurting in this crisis to fight back and stay safe," de Blasio wrote on Twitter.

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Adams wrote he was glad the city started to surge COVID-19 resources to Brooklyn people in need.

Left unsaid was how publicly-available coronavirus data doesn't yet tell the impact on NYCHA. The available city data only lists confirmed cases by zip code.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who represents a swath of Central Brooklyn, had been vocal about the outbreak's disproportionate impact on communities of color. He joined other black elected officials last week in calling for "specific and granular data" on infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths in the black community.

On Thursday, Myrie told the New York Daily News the city has yet to fulfill his demand to release NYCHA-specific data.

"Despite signs that NYCHA is suffering a disproportionate number of cases, we have no definitive data on the severity of the COVID-19 crisis in NYCHA developments," he told the Daily News.

The Marcy Houses sit in the 11206 zip code — which, with 1,238 confirmed cases, has the 51st-most cases out of any city zip code as of April 30.

Patch has compiled a list of confirmed coronavirus by zip code, sorted by most cases:

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