NEW YORK _ In a new study conducted by New York state, nearly a quarter of New York City's population was found to have been sickened by coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
Cuomo said an eye-popping 21% of people from the five boroughs who were picked to be tested outside supermarkets and big-box stores have contracted the disease at some point.
The study suggests nearly 2 million New Yorkers in the city have gotten the feared virus, including a slightly larger number of men than women, Cuomo suggested.
"What does it mean? They were infected three weeks ago and four weeks ago and five weeks ago or six weeks ago," Cuomo. said. "They have the virus and they developed the antibodies and they are recovered."
The grim numbers, which experts say are comparable to infection rates in hard-hit parts of Europe, will shape the state's and city's plans to reopen at some point from the devastating pandemic.
"What you do in a place with 21% is very different," he said. "The facts dictate the action."
Statewide, 13.9% of New Yorkers tested positive for the antibodies that are produced when people fight off the virus.
Long Island had a 16.7% rate. Westchester and Rockland clocked in at 11.7%. Upstate, just 3.9% tested positive in the study, which covered 19 counties and 40 municipalities.
"That reinforces the idea that the disease was spreading widely before any social distancing went into effect," Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor University told CNN. "It's truly heartbreaking."
Even worse, it's likely that the random study may actually underestimate the share of the population that has been sickened. First responders and front-line health workers were likely not included because they are unlikely to have been out shopping when the random tests were completed, Cuomo said.
The study also documented the heavy toll that coronavirus has taken on people of color. Blacks and Latinos were more than twice as likely as white New Yorkers to have gotten the virus.
More than 15,000 New Yorkers have been killed by coronavirus. But Cuomo warned Thursday that those numbers only include those who have died in hospitals and nursing homes _ and the real toll is surely even higher.
New Yorkers have died in the past two months at a rate much higher than previous years, suggesting that coronavirus is killing far more people than the official figures say.
"It is not an accurate number of deaths because it does not count at-home deaths," Cuomo said. "It is not accurate because there have been many other deaths that's not tested for COVID."
Cuomo announced the figures as the state's daily death toll dipped a bit to 438 Thursday.
The governor bemoaned the fact that New York has flattened the coronavirus curve, but still has about 1,300 new hospitalizations a day.
"We've basically flattened it out at about 1,300 people coming through the door," he said. "And that's not great. We'd like to see it going down faster."
