Spatial and Temporal Disparities of COVID-19 Patterns in New York City: Impacts of Mobility Restriction and Nativity

Keywords: Mobility restriction, minority health disparities, public transit, nativity, COVID-19
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 45

Abstract

New York City has become the epicenter of COVID-19 for a long time since the pandemic began. Authorities have soon introduced lockdown policy to decrease the spread of virus. In this pandemic, minority communities, however, still share a disproportional percentage of infection and mortality rate. Considering both public transit and lockdown policy essential factors that impact both infection and mortality, this study introduced a measure indicating mobility-restricted transit as a spatial factor to investigate its impact. Additional factors include ethnic minorities based on their nativity and three categories of social vulnerability: socioeconomic status, household composition, and housing type. This study first selects eight phases, each of which consists of two weeks to derive the new infection and mortality rates. Due to the reality that infection and mortality data are published at zip code tabulation area (ZCTA) level, this study further estimates the infection and mortality rates at a finer level of census tract through spatial apportionment. Results reveal the significant impact of mobility-restricted transit on both infection and mortality and show certain clusters of neighborhoods where such factor’s impact is high. In addition, this study also identifies neighborhoods where native-born Blacks, foreign-born Blacks, foreign-born Hispanics, and foreign-born Asians have high risk of mortality. Through both spatial and social perspectives, this study helps identify the patterns in minority health disparities and provide information for policy makers to suggest localized support to impacted neighborhoods for alleviating minority health disparities.