As I answered on Quora:
New York City and its suburban counties — Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland — are responsible for 93% of the statewide case count.[1]
2. New York city has the highest population density of any major city in the United States, with over 27,000 people per square mile. [2]
3. Michael Schertz in his answer here reports that NYC has very strict criteria for testing in that one essentially needs to present themselves with symptoms and serious ones at that. Thus the mortality rate is basically based on the population most at risk of dying.
In contrast, Iceland reports that as of April 11 the country had “tested 10% of its population for coronavirus - a figure far higher than anywhere else in the world -” and that “about half of its citizenry at any given time who have coronavirus but don’t know it will be asymptomatic” (show no symptoms), which is “a large percentage many experts studying the virus have suspected, but have had little firm data to corroborate.”[3]
4. In addition, the CDC allows some leeway in assigning the cause of death: “COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death [emp. by CDC].” “the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID-19 being the underlying cause more often than not.”[4]
5. Thus in contrast to its restrictions for testing, New York City,
“sharply increased its death toll by more than 3,700 victims on Tuesday, after officials said they were now including people who had never tested positive for the virus but were presumed to have died of it. Oxiris Barbot, the commissioner of the city Health Department, said in an interview. While these so-called excess deaths were not explicitly linked to the virus, they might not have happened had the outbreak not occurred.”[5]
6. Blacks and Hispanics have a significantly higher rate of obesity,[6] which condition (together with being overweight) is the second leading preventable cause of death in the United States.[7] And Black and Hispanic New Yorkers represent 51% of the city’s population, yet account for 62% of Covid-19 deaths.[8]
Footnotes
[1] Why New York has been hit so hard by coronavirus
[2] Population Facts
[3] Iceland has tested more of its population for coronavirus than anywhere else. Here’s what it learned
[4] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/coronavirus/Alert-2-New-ICD-code-introduced-for-COVID-19-deaths.pdf
[5] N.Y.C. Death Toll Soars Past 10,000 in Revised Virus Count
[6] Adults Who Report They Are Overweight or Obese by Race/Ethnicity
[7] Obesity: Facts, Figures, Guidelines
[8] Why New York has been hit so hard by coronavirus
Blacks and Hispanics have a significantly higher rate of obesity,[6] which condition (together with being overweight) is the second leading preventable cause of death in the United States.[7] And Black and Hispanic New Yorkers represent 51% of the city’s population, yet account for 62% of Covid-19 deaths.[8]
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In addition, something to explore is Vit. D deficiency. Darker skinned people living in Northern latitudes are not as efficient at producing Vit. D from sun exposure as lighter skinned people.