A study from Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, found that 75 percent of front-line workers in the city — grocery clerks, bus and train operators, janitors and child care staff — are minorities. More than 60 percent of people who work as cleaners are Latino, and more than 40 percent of transit employees are black.

“It’s one thing to raise the issue and say there are a disproportionate amount of blacks and low-income people who become infected with coronavirus,” Professor Hutson said. “It’s another to turn this into policy.”

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