Disparities in the distribution of COVID-19 testing sites in black and Latino areas in new York City.

Abstract In New York City (NYC), there are disproportionately more cases and deaths from COVID-19 for Blacks and Latinos compared to Whites. Using data from the NYC coronavirus data repository and the 2018 American Community Survey 5-year census estimates, we examined the distribution of testing sites across NYC neighborhoods (zip code tabulation areas) by race in May 2020. ArcGIS was used to create majority race zip code-level maps showing the distribution of testing sites on May 1, 2020 and May 17, 2020 in NYC. t-tests were used to determine whether significant differences existed in the number of testing sites by the majority race of zip codes. Between May 1, 2020 and May 17, 2020, testing sites in majority Black neighborhoods increased by more than 240% from nine to 31, and more than 90% from 16 to 31 in majority Latino neighborhoods. Black (M = 1257.7) and Latino (M = 1662.3) neighborhoods had significantly more COVID-19 cases (p