#Early test results reveal just how swiftly coronavirus crippled NYC

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A woman wears a medical mask on the subway as New York City confronts the coronavirus outbreak.
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The first batch of results for patients tested for the coronavirus reveals how swiftly the pandemic spread through New York earlier this spring — particularly in black and Asian communities and the outer boroughs, according to a new study.

The analysis of 46,793 patients tested for COVID-19 between March 8 and April 10 by Northwell Health’s lab found that 57 percent were infected with the killer bug.

Nearly a third, or more than 8,000, of the positive patients were sick enough to require hospitalization, the review by Northwell’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research found. The results were published in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The study found that 68 percent of patients tested from Queens were infected with COVID-19, followed by positive rates of 62 percent in Brooklyn and 59 percent in The Bronx.

The lowest positive rates were for patients in Westchester County with 46 percent and Suffolk County, 51 percent.

A racial breakdown revealed that 68 percent of black patients tested positive, followed by 62 percent of Asian residents and 55 percent of whites.

Black males had the highest infection rate — 72.1 percent, followed by Asian males, 71.6 percent.

“Our data reveal that [COVID-19] incidence emerged rapidly and almost simultaneously across a broad demographic population in the region. These findings support the hypothesis that … infection was widely distributed prior to virus testing availability,” the study said.

Many of the first patients tested in hospitals and outpatient clinics were already sick or exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus.

During the earliest days of the pandemic, testing capacity was largely limited to those exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus.

After a months-long lockdown and imposition of social distancing rules, New York has largely curbed COVID-19 infections and is now ordering visitors from 19 other hot-spot states to quarantine when they enter to New York to prevent another flare-up here.