Most recent data: Dec 29, 2022
The municipality with the most new cases per capita in the last 14 days is Elmsford, where there have been an average of 3 new cases per day reported between Dec 16, 2022 and Dec 29, 2022 (64 per 100,000 residents). Hastings-on-Hudson is another recent hot spot, with 4 new cases per day reported in the last two weeks (57 per 100,000).
Throughout the pandemic, the municipalities that have had the largest share of their population test positive for coronavirus are Elmsford (1 in 2) and Ossining Village (1 in 2). The municipalities that have had the fewest cases per capita are Pound Ridge (1 in 5) and Lewisboro (1 in 4).
Westchester County does not currently publish historical data at the municipal-level, but I have reconstructed this data using maps posted on the WestchesterGov Twitter account. The earliest maps that included the number of active cases by municipality were posted in early May. As such, the data I have largely misses the first wave of the pandemic from March and April 2020.
The chart below shows the severity of the pandemic in each municipality by plotting the rolling 14-day average of new cases per 100,000 residents by day. The municipalities are ordered from top to bottom by their current average daily cases per 100,000.
In the same way that the death rate from Covid-19 is Westchester County is higher for Black and Latino people than for White people, the total number of cases in the community is also correlated with socioeconomic characteristics. The risk of being infected with the novel coronavirus is higher for people of color due to factors including disproportionate representation in “essential” occupations, overcrowded and multigenerational households, and systemic discrimination and racism resulting in disparities in education and income as well as reduced access to high quality healthcare.
The scatterplots below illustrate the relationship between the total cases per capita in each municipality and three selected characteristics: poverty, overcrowding, and Black or Latino population. Each circle represents one of the 43 Westchester municipalities. Circles in the upper right-hand corner of each plot represent municipalities with high case rates and high levels of each socioeconomic variable. Municipalities with low case rates and low levels of each socioeconomic factor are in the bottom left.
There is a strong positive correlation between each of the variables and the number of cases per capita. This suggests that the national trends of disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on disadvantaged communities also exists in Westchester County.