Most new COVID-19 patients in NY not working, older: survey

The great majority of people newly hospitalised with the coronavirus in New York are either retired or unemployed and were avoiding public transit, according to a new state survey, the first such look at people still getting seriously ill despite six weeks of severe social distancing.

The survey of 1,269 patients admitted to 113 hospitals over three recent days confounded expectations that new cases would be dominated by essential workers, especially those regularly traveling on subways and buses.

Retirees accounted for 37 per cent of the people hospitalized. Another 46 per cent were unemployed. Almost three-quarters were 51 years or older. Only 17 per cent were working.

Only 4 per cent were still using public transportation in their daily life, they survey found, though it also noted that information on transit use was only available for about half the people surveyed.

We were thinking that maybe we were going to find a higher percentage of essential employees who were getting sick ..