Coronavirus data continues to expose disproportionality in health outcomes by race, ethnicity and income. However, the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health (Public Health) sees signs of progress in closing the gaps.
Latino residents are dying at rates far higher than other group and were at six deaths per 100,000 people at the peak of transmission in July. This was six times higher than the rate for White residents at 1.3 deaths per 100,000 people.
Now the death rate among Latino residents is 2.4 deaths per 100,000 people. While decreasing, this is still 2.5 times higher than White residents.
Black residents had a rate at four deaths per 100,000 people during the peak of transmission in July which was three times higher than White residents. Now, the mortality rate for Black residents is 1.7 deaths per 100,000 people, only slightly higher than that of White residents.
At its peak, on June 10, the mortality rate for people living in communities with the fewest resources was seven deaths per 100,000 people. This is seven times higher than that of people who were living in communities with the most resources, who had a death rate of 1 death per 100,000 people.
On August 9, the death rate among people who live in areas with the fewest resources was 4.6 deaths per 100,000 people. This is four times that of the death rate of people who were living in the highest-resourced communities who continue to have a mortality rate at 1 per 100,000 people. This is a decrease from June, but Public Health stated that It’s still an extraordinary gap and stands for a lot of disproportionately and the devastation among the Latino/Latinx community.
“We are thinking of all of the people across our communities who are grieving a loved one who has passed away from COVID-19. We are so sorry for your loss,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of Public Health. “COVID-19 has shined a stark light on systemic racism and inequity’s impact on health. By working together, we are starting to close the gaps for COVID-19 health outcomes. We must continue to implement solutions and take actions that reduce the devastating impact of this pandemic by ensuring that resources are targeted to the hardest hit communities.”
Public Health has increased the number of investigations for non-compliance of the Health Officer Order from 2,877 investigations in March to 9,683 investigations in July. To date, there have been investigations at almost 30,000 workplaces. In the month of April, 30 businesses were closed for violations of the Health Officer Order. This number has decreased to 23 businesses closed for the month of July. Even as more inspections occurred in July than in April, there were less closures because most businesses have come into compliance with Health Officer Order directives.
