NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2020) Five new coronavirus (COVID-19) testing hubs will be opened across minority communities in New York City in an effort to address the racial disparity in responding to the pandemic, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo's office said in a press release on Thursday.
"Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced five new testing facilities downstate, primarily in minority communities," the release said.
According to the data shared on Wednesday by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the virus has disproportionately affected minorities with 34 percent of all COVID-19-related deaths registered in the Hispanic community. Hispanics make up 29 percent of the New York City's total population.
In addition, 28 percent of the fatalities have been confirmed among the African American community, which is 22 percent of New York's population.
According to Cuomo, the opening of new testing hubs will also help to understand the root causes of the racial disparity in COVID-19 deaths.
"We are going to increase testing and open new testing sites to collect more data in African-American and Latino communities so we can better understand why this virus kills and has higher fatality rates in certain communities, and what we can do to address it," Cuomo said in the release.
Drive-through mobile testing centers will open in Brooklyn's Flatbush and Ozone Park in Queens - neighborhoods with a high population of residents of Hispanic origin.
The other three walk-in facilities will open their doors at health care centers in the South Bronx area, Jamaica neighborhood in Queens and in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
