At least 2m New Yorkers lost loved ones to COVID-19: NYT

NEW YORK - An estimated 2 million New Yorkers, nearly one in four, lost at least one person close to them to COVID-19 within the first 16 months of the virus's arrival, reported The New York Times (NYT) on Friday.

Nearly 900,000 New Yorkers lost at least three people they said they were close to -- an open-ended category that included relatives and friends, the newspaper cited a survey conducted in mid-2021 by federal census workers on behalf of the city.

The finding about the scale of loss was among several from the survey, known as the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, that shed new light on the impact of the pandemic in the city.

"Its findings echoed earlier studies that documented how Black and Hispanic New Yorkers died from COVID at higher rates than white New Yorkers in 2020," said the report.