The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color with its infections and death rates. Those disparities along racial barriers are apparent across the United States including Allegheny County.
The Allegheny County Health Department reported 408 new COVID-19 Tuesday and 12 additional deaths. Among the new deaths, one patient was between 18-24-years-old and 11 patients were 65+ years old.
So far, 2,299 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in the county, and there have been more than 131,000 thousand positive cases.
According to data, 12.9 percent of Allegheny County residents identify as black compared to 79.9 percent identifying as white. However, the African-American community accounts for nearly 16 percent of all positive cases in the county. White residents accounted for 71.4 percent of the cases– lower than their overall population.
Deaths hit both black and white communities hard. 307 (13.4 percent) of the deaths were black patients, and 1,844 (82.3 percent) were white.
The greatest disparity exists among hospitalized individuals in the county. Nearly one in four (24.7 percent) patients hospitalized with the coronavirus in Allegheny County were black despite the group only accounting for about 16 percent of the positive cases. While the white population made up 70.4 percent of hospitalization.
Earlier this month, the medical care African-Americans receive while battling the coronavirus was called into question. The University of Michigan found more than 50 percent of patients of color were readmitted to the hospital within 60 days after being released.
In Allegheny, African-Americans were the only minority group whose risk of infection, hospitalization and death were higher than their overall population.
Everyone age 12 and older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Click here, to find vaccination locations in the Pittsburgh/ Allegheny County area. Vaccine information is also available on the Pennsylvania Department of Health website.
Story Credit: editorumt@gmail.com
Photo Credit:Maria Oswalt/Unsplash