DETROIT — It has seen its population plummet, houses fall to ruin, and the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation. Now another crisis has descended on Detroit: the coronavirus.

In less than two weeks, 35 people with the coronavirus have died in Detroit. The police chief has tested positive for the virus, and more than 500 police officers are in quarantine. On Sunday morning, the city’s downtown, a center of Detroit’s post-bankruptcy resurgence, was quiet and mostly deserted.

The coronavirus has landed on this city’s doorstep, its unwelcome arrival a sign of the outbreak’s growing reach across America to cities far from the coasts and not as densely populated as New York. But the virus could place a unique burden on Detroit, a city of 670,000 people where three of 10 residents live in poverty, a large number have asthma and other chronic diseases, and hospitals are already overwhelmed. It is a city that has seen more than its share of crisis, and now finds itself staring at yet another.

Residents have been shaken by the number of people falling ill from the virus, including a well-known community activist, Marlowe Stoudamire, who died last week at the age of 43. He had attended a neighborhood pancake breakfast on March 6 where several police officers apparently were exposed.