Mr. de Blasio swept into office in 2013 on a wave of rhetoric about how New York had become a bastion of inequality. Over the last six years of his administration, the mayor has set out to repair that imbalance with universal prekindergarten, increases in the minimum wage for city workers and paid sick leave.

The coronavirus outbreak has now illuminated other gaps between the haves and have-nots in New York City, from the availability of testing sites to the availability of beds and personal protection equipment at hospitals.

In New York City, Latinos represent 34 percent of the people who have died of the coronavirus but make up 29 percent of the city’s population, according to preliminary data from the city’s Health Department. Black people represent 28 percent of deaths but make up 22 percent of the population.

New York City’s racial disparity in deaths is similar to that in other parts of the state, but is actually less pronounced than in other states and cities that have released racial breakdowns of coronavirus cases and deaths.

In Chicago, for example, black people account for 72 percent of virus-related fatalities, even though they make up a little less than a third of the population.

Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday that some of the difference could be attributed to poorer people having more untreated chronic health problems than more-affluent individuals, making them more likely to die if they contract the virus.

But he said that black and Hispanic people may also be disproportionately represented on the front lines of workers who are at high risk.