By Thursday, 46 New Orleanians had died from the virus, or a little more than 1 out of every 10,000 city residents. In Jefferson Parish, which has recorded 12 deaths, the rate was about 1 for every 36,000 residents.
Viewed another way, New Orleans has recorded more deaths than Manhattan — generally seen as America’s epicenter of the pandemic — with a population less than a quarter as large.
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In interviews, several observers have pointed out that the number of deaths recorded in American communities so far, while extremely worrisome, was small enough to be affected by statistical anomalies — such as the grim toll coronavirus has already exacted at Lambeth House, the senior complex in Uptown. There, 12 people have died so far, and more are infected. The complex accounts for about one-fourth of the deaths in New Orleans.
Other communities, of course, also have senior complexes, and some of them have had similar, and even more alarming, clusters. The 35 deaths recorded at the Life Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, account for more than a third of the deaths to date in King County.
Even so, if none of the deaths at Lambeth House had happened, New Orleans would still have the highest per-capita death rate of any county by a wide margin.
From the article:
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