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Residents of United Hospital Fund Neighborhood zone 408 who tested positive for COVID-19 make up between 51.26 and 65.41 percent of the region's population to receive tests.
Get it? Yeah, neither do we.
The Health Department released Friday a difficult-to-interpret map of novel coronavirus cases in New York City, one day after a Wall Street Journal reporter called out Mayor Bill de Blasio for a lack of transparency.
"You have to release more detailed data on cases and deaths," Katie Honan told de Blasio. "It's negligent that you're not ... please, everyone has to get this data."
De Blasio lashed back at Honan, "If you believe it's your role to editorialize in the middle of your question, that's your right as an American."
"I don't believe that not only is it not negligent," he said. "I would say to you it's the exact opposite."
Yet less than 24 hours later, a new map appeared on the Department of Health's COVID-19 that tracks the percentage of patients testing positive by neighborhood.
Neighborhoods are designated by numbers instead of name — 408 is Jamaica, Queens, by the way — and the percentages are not connected to population data but to those tested.
The number of people tested per zone? Not included.
The population for zone? Not included.
Some New Yorkers were baffled.
"Anyone from NYC area who can parse this heat map of Covid-19?" asked Twitter user @_mzishi_.
Others were not.
"Map is pretty clear," tweeted Devin Balkind. "It's showing that the administration has no interest in transparency."
Since my role is also to editorialize, as an American I would like to say again that Bill de Blasio is a bastard.
