(NBC News) – New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control show people of color are being disproportionately impacted by coronavirus.
Black and Latino cases make up more than half of those where race and ethnicity are known, and the disparities may be even greater. Demographic data collection across the country has been inconsistent.
Under mounting pressure, the Trump administration recently released new guidelines for states on the gathering and reporting of data for cases and deaths.
Starting in August labs must collect race and ethnicity data of those being tested for coronavirus.
The COVID-19 Racial Data Tracker, a collaboration by the Antiracist Research and Policy Center and the COVID Tracking Project, finds Black americans are dying at rates nearly twice their population share.
In more than 40 states Latino cases comprise more than their share of the population.
Native Americans and Alaska Natives are also being disproportionately impacted.
We likely don’t have the full picture yet according to Dr. Utibe Essien.
His analysis found many states have incomplete or no demographic data, making it difficult to distribute limited resources.
“Really this pandemic has laid bare the social inequalities in our system as a whole but particularly in our health system,” Dr. Essien says.
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