Coronavirus: New York outbreak could have started in subways
As central New York is ready to begin reopening, there is scientific evidence that the public transit spread the coronavirus in the city that became the epicenter of the pandemic.
New York became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States with the most number of confirmed cases and deaths. On 14 May Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Central New York has met all seven state criteria to begin a phased reopening of nonessential businesses this Friday.
“The state has also approved the Finger Lakes, North Country, Mohawk Valley and Southern Tier regions to begin reopening Friday. Local governments in reopened regions will continue to monitor coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, as well as enforce safety regulations for reopened businesses,” said Cuomo.
So as the Empire State reopens scientists have come to the conclusion that the subway system was at the heart of the massive coronavirus outbreak in the city during March and April. The city of New York has 496 subway stations and when the pandemic started Dr. Jeffrey Harris started conducting research into why the ‘Big Apple’ became the epicenter of Covid-19 in the U.S.
Dr. Harris counted more than 5 million clicks each working day and by the end of the month, turnstile entries in the Bronx stations were down 80% and new coronavirus infections had slowed. Things were different in the Manhattan stations because entries were down 92% and new Covid-19 confirmed cases had totally leveled off.
“Subway lines with the largest drop in ridership during the second and third weeks of March had the lowest subsequent rates of infection in the zip codes traversed by their routes. Maps of subway station turnstile entries, superimposed upon zip code-level maps of reported coronavirus incidence, are strongly consistent with subway-facilitated disease propagation. Reciprocal seeding of infection appears to be the best explanation for the emergence of a single hotspot in Midtown West in Manhattan,” wrote Dr. Harris in his research.
According to the scientific research the coronavirus was taking round trips every working day and the epidemic was gradually subsiding as the number of trips went down. Similar patterns were found with subway lines feeding the most highly infected neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn.