Chen Wei’s wife begged him to stop making restaurant deliveries because she feared he might contract the coronavirus from a customer.

Lee Mengba, another delivery worker, wondered if the hand that reached out for the bag of medication from behind an apartment door on a recent run belonged to a quarantined patient.

Adolfo Garcia tries to deliver pizza “in four seconds,” sometimes leaving boxes near the elevator on the first floor of apartment buildings for customers to grab. He disinfects his hands after each delivery — so often that his skin is dry and cracked.

As New Yorkers barricade themselves in their homes to practice “social distancing,” delivery workers, typically an overlooked group, have now taken on outsized significance and are on the front lines of the outbreak.