Data Stories in the News

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Covid-19

Variants

Though the vaccination effort is well underway in New York City, new coronavirus cases remain stubbornly high. The likely culprit: variants. More contagious variants of the virus account for more than 75 percent of new cases, according to a recent analysis.

During February and March, two Covid-19 variants — B.1.526 (first detected in New York City) and B.1.1.7 (first detected in the U.K.) — grew to become the dominant forms of the virus in N.Y.C. Two other variants have since gained a foothold in the city: P.1 (first detected in Brazil) and B.1.351 (first detected in South Africa).

The information serves as a vivid reminder that the dynamics of New York’s epidemic have changed over the past few months, and that the original forms of the virus are increasingly unusual across the city.

 

The data has limitations

In a given week, about one to two thousand positive coronavirus cases in New York City are sequenced — that is, the genetic material of the virus is examined for mutations. That represents roughly between four and eight percent of New York City’s new cases.

Most of its coronavirus samples come from the city’s public hospital system and city-sponsored testing sites. It receives lots of samples from some neighborhoods, but few from others.

Each dot on the density maps above is placed in the ZIP code of a New Yorker whose coronavirus sample was sequenced at the Opentrons lab. But neighborhoods with lots of dots do not necessarily correspond with coronavirus hot spots. The density of dots can often be explained by the presence of a city testing center nearby. On the other hand, neighborhoods with few dots are not necessarily free of variants. It just means few coronavirus samples from there reached the lab.

There are blind spots across the Bronx, Queens and the southern half of Manhattan.

Rise of Variants in Europe Shows How Dangerous the Virus Can Be

Even as the variant surged in Britain starting in December, it was also seeding outbreaks across the continent, many of them unnoticed behind an overall drop in cases. Those variant-heavy outbreaks have since ballooned, and the variant has now crowded out other versions of the virus, becoming dominant in more than a dozen European countries.

Cases by County

Travel Uptick

Shift in Age of Those Infected

Prisoners

See Coronavirus Restrictions and Mask Mandates for All 50 States

‘You Can’t Trust Anyone’: Russia’s Hidden Covid Toll Is an Open Secret 

The country’s official coronavirus death toll is 102,649. But at least 300,000 more people died last year during the pandemic than were reported in Russia’s most widely cited official statistics.

Homegrown Terrorism

Property Values