NYU Adds “COVID Local Risk Index” to City Health Dashboard

The Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health and the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at NYU recently added a “COVID Local Risk Index” to their City Health Dashboard. The index uses housing, health, demographic, and economic indicators from the American Community Survey (ACS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to report levels of COVID-19 risk across the 500 largest U.S. cities. The index allows users to identify which cities are at higher risk for coronavirus infection and for more severe cases.

Each geographic area is assigned a score from one to 10, with one being the lowest risk and 10 being the highest risk for infections and severe cases. The index is searchable by city, zip code, and census tract. An interactive map also allows users to compare risk levels down to the census tract within each city. This index can assist policymakers in resource allocation and targeted prevention efforts in communities with the highest levels of need.

The City Health Dashboard also provides data on 36 other health and socioeconomic measures, including housing cost-burden, housing with potential lead risk, and neighborhood racial/ethnic segregation.

The COVID Local Risk Index and searchable database can be found at: https://bit.ly/2YENUAF