New Yorkers should expect that half the city’s population will get coronavirus by the time the pandemic runs its course, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. The mayor made the grim prediction as the number of New Yorkers who have died from the disease rose to 199 on Wednesday morning, and confirmed cases in the city jumped to 17,856.
Those numbers far understate the true scope of the spread, officials said, since people not sick enough to be hospitalized are largely unable to get tested. “It’s a fair bet to say that half of all New Yorkers, and maybe more than half, will end up contracting this disease,” de Blasio told reporters. “And that’s worrisome, very deeply worrisome, for all of us, but we have to start with the truth.”
