Illinois public health officials released racial and ethnic demographic data about COVID-19 patients, which showed that of the confirmed cases in Illinois as of March 27, 2020, 39% were White, 28% were Black, 4% were Asian, and 7% were Latino.
According to this article, African Americans are overrepresented in infection rates in Illinois (4.6 percent of the state population but 28 percent of confirmed cases of the coronavirus), while whites (76.9 percent of the Illinois population and 39 percent of the confirmed cases) and Latinos are significantly underrepresented (7.4 percent of the state population, and 7 percent of the cases. Some lawmakers have written a letter to the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to include racial data in the testing of COVID-19. Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The letter notes that: “Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole….This lack of information will exacerbate existing health disparities and result in the loss of lives in vulnerable communities.”
