One-third of Bronx test subjects have coronavirus antibodies

Just over one-third of the people tested for antibodies in the Bronx neighborhood in New York City came back positive, according to data from the city’s health department released Tuesday.

At 33.1 percent, the Bronx has the highest percent positive rate of antibody tests among the city’s five boroughs. This number represents the share of antibody tests that were conducted and returned positive. 

Queens and Brooklyn fell in second and third place at 28.2 and 27.9 percent positivity rate, respectively. Manhattan and Staten Island had a positivity rate of about 20 percent. 

In one Queens ZIP code, more than 50 percent of people who had gotten tested were found to have antibodies, while no ZIP code in the lower half of Manhattan had a positivity rate higher than 20 percent. 

The Bronx was also the least-tested borough, with about 15,000 antibody tests conducted for every 100,000 people compared to 23,685 in people in Manhattan. 

Unlike most of the data related to coronavirus cases and deaths, data on antibody tests are not broken down by race because most labs do not collect that information, the health department said. Nonetheless, the antibody data underscores the racial and wealth disparities in the pandemic. 

The data also found that people who live in “very high poverty” neighborhoods had a positivity rate of 35 percent, compared to an 18.5 percent positivity rate among the “low poverty” category. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed poverty and subsequent overcrowding as a risk factor in the coronavirus pandemic.