Greenburgh and COVID’s Disparate Impact

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June 10, 2021

By Daniel R. Weinfeld—

Greenburgh’s active COVID cases are plummeting and approaching the lowest number reported since the pandemic began. Masks are starting to come off, restaurants are beginning to fill, and Metro North is getting busier. Admittedly the pandemic isn’t over, but we can take a moment to consider aspects of COVID’s extent and impact in Greenburgh. At the same time, it’s incumbent on us to confront systemic inequities that the pandemic has accentuated.

There is much reason for satisfaction and relief. The pandemic’s second wave peaked at 978 active cases in the Town of Greenburgh on January 20, 2021 (coincidentally – or not – inauguration day) but Greenburgh reported just 27 active cases on June 6^th. As of June 1st, 53% of all Greenburgh residents were completely vaccinated, with another 7% waiting for their second shot. Approximately 62% of all residents 12 years old and up – those currently eligible for shots – are fully vaccinated.

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Over the course of the pandemic, 11% of Greenburgh residents—more than 10,000 people—tested positive for COVID. Greenburgh’s rate of 11% of residents testing positive is lower than Westchester County’s 13% but higher than New York State’s 11%. We will never know how many residents contracting COVID were asymptomatic or failed to inform health authorities.

New York State and Westchester County are withholding municipal fatality numbers, but we can roughly estimate the number of COVID related deaths in Greenburgh. After much pressure, New York State provided COVID-related death numbers for senior care facilities (i.e., assisted living, nursing homes, etc.). We learned of 136 COVID-related deaths of residents in senior care facilities located in the Town of Greenburgh (with nearly half that number from just two facilities). By pro-rating the sum of the non-senior care facility deaths for Westchester County, we can roughly estimate about 280 COVID deaths town wide in Greenburgh. We’ll know more should the County prove forthcoming with its fatality data; nevertheless, it is evident that in Greenburgh, as in New York State and the nation, vulnerable seniors died disproportionately from this devastating disease.

In addition to the toll on seniors, a closer look at COVID data reveals additional disturbing information about the disparate impact of the pandemic in our community. The 11% COVID-positive test rate for Greenburgh cited above is the same for unincorporated Greenburgh’s 44,500 residents and the six incorporated villages’ 46,500 residents. Yet, we can also see from county data that these infection rates are not evenly distributed. In the Village of Elmsford, for example, 15% of residents have tested positive, more than double the Village of Irvington’s rate of 7%.

Looking deeper into the six incorporated villages’ COVID rates and other demographic data, we can find distressing, but perhaps unsurprising, evidence of the impact of systemic inequities in our public health. For example, the ranking of the six villages by residents’ rates of positive COVID tests inversely tracks the ranking of those same six villages by race (i.e., white and Asian percentage of residents) and per capita income. With Elmsford landlocked entirely within unincorporated Greenburgh’s northside, where the preponderance of the town’s racial and ethnic minority residents live, it can be surmised that the distribution of COVID infections in unincorporated Greenburgh follows a similar demographic pattern. Simply and bluntly stated, Greenburgh’s Black and Latin communities suffered higher rates of COVID infection than did the wealthiest and most white neighborhoods.

For vaccination information, Westchester County chose to be more helpful by providing breakdowns by zip code. When it comes to vaccination rates, the racial and economic disparities hinted at by the COVID positive test rate data becomes much clearer. Among the ten zip codes that cover nearly all of Greenburgh, the highest vaccination rates for those 12-years-of age and above are found among the 5 zip codes that have the highest percentage of white and Asian residents. The disparity runs from 70% of 12+-year-old individuals fully vaccinated in Ardsley’s 10502 zip code (86% white and Asian) to just 49% of 12+-year-old individuals fully vaccinated in Elmsford’s 10523 zip code (the Greenburgh zip code with the smallest white and Asian population percentage at 37%). These gaps are startling and distressing.

COVID is rapidly waning, and some experts allege that herd immunity has effectively been achieved. Nevertheless, this examination of COVID data for the Town of Greenburgh shows us that, in addition to the many individual tragedies arising from the pandemic, even in a progressive community like Greenburgh, the inequities that indict our society, and especially our public health system, persist. Like the rest of our nation, the town and residents of Greenburgh can respond to the pandemic by confronting the advantages of privilege and doing better to ensure the health of all residents.

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