The pandemic is hitting blacks and Hispanics hardest in Virginia.
Three weeks ago, Governor Ralph Northam asked health care providers to start collecting more data about the race of people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Now we’ve got a better idea of the racial inequities here in Virginia.
Alexandria Health Director Stephen Haering says African Americans are being hospitalized at higher rates based on a number of factors.
“The virus itself doesn’t discriminate. But the impact it has on people does according to their income, type of job, whether they have a job or not, whether the job has sick benefits," he says. "For instance, if you’re ill, can you take off and still get paid?”
Freddy Mejia at the Commonwealth Institute says he’s concerned the Hispanic population makes up about 20% of the population in Fairfax County but more than 50% of the COVID-19 cases there.
“There’s some real concerns around are we really reaching the communities we need to, how this data is being reported and what the state could do better in order to show these really important discrepancies and inequities in COVID outcomes,” Mejia says.
Some states are releasing localized case numbers by ZIP code. But so far, Virginia is declining to release that level of detail. And about a third of the cases reported to the Virginia Department of Health don’t include any information about race.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
