New York was the epicenter specifically because both DeBlasio and Cuomo ignored public health officials at nearly every turn, refused to start preparing for the pandemic until the first case had already hit, and even then spent more of their time bickering with each other in a weird power struggle instead of trying to contain the pandemic quickly.
Multiple independent studies have shown that Cuomo's refusal to shut down the city when DeBlasio requested it was responsible for over half of NY deaths to date - and even that's not considering the fact that DeBlasio made the request rather late (the city's public health department was advocating it far earlier).
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/0...
https://www.propublica.org/article/two-coasts-one-virus-how-...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/coronavirus-distancing...