Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov-Dec:38:101904.
doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101904. Epub 2020 Nov 1.

COVID-19 disparity among racial and ethnic minorities in the US: A cross sectional analysis

Raghavendra Tirupathi  1 , Valeriia Muradova  2 , Raj Shekhar  3 , Sohail Abdul Salim  4 , Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq  5 , Venkataraman Palabindala  4
Affiliations

COVID-19 disparity among racial and ethnic minorities in the US: A cross sectional analysis

Raghavendra Tirupathi et al. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Aim: To analyze racial disparities in Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the United States of America and discuss possible reasons behind this inequality.

Subject and methods: We obtained estimated case counts of African-American, Caucasian, Native American, Asian and Hispanic individuals with coronavirus disease (COVID-19)infection through May 5, 2020, from publicly available data on state departments of health websites. We calculated race-specific fractions as the percentage of the total population and analyzed the reasons behind this disparity.

Results: The incident rates of COVID-19 were higher among African Americans and among Latinos disproportionately higher than their representation in 14 states and 9 states, respectively. A similar observation was also reported for New York city. The percentage of deaths reported among African Americans was disproportionately higher than their represented share in the population in 23 out of 35 states. It was reported that 22.4% of COVID-19 deaths in the USA were African American, even though black people make up 13.4% of the USA population.

Conclusions: The analysis shows the disparity of coronavirus disease outcomes by ethnicity and race. Additional research is needed to determine the factors behind this inequality.

Keywords: African-American; Asian; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Hispanic; Minorities; Native-American; Racial disparities; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
COVID-19 Cases among African AmericansAfrican Americans (Population, %) and COVID-19 cases among African Americans (%) for each state. Color shows details about Americans (Population, %) and cases among African Americans (%). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
COVID-19 Cases among HispanicsHispanics (Population, %) and COVID-19 cases among Hispanics (%) for each state. Color shows details about Hispanics (Population, %) and cases among Hispanics (%). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) among African American The black lines represent the percentage of African Americans in the population. The blue bars represent the percentage of African Americans in the population and COVID-19 cases among African Americans. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) among American Indians The black lines represent the percentage of American Indians in the population. The blue bars represent the percentage of American Indians in the population and COVID-19 cases among American Indians. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) among Hispanics The black lines represent the percentage of Hispanics in the population. The blue bars represent the percentage of Hispanics in the population and COVID-19 cases among Hispanics. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wu Z., McGoogan J.M. Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: summary of a report of 72 314 cases from the Chinese center for disease control and prevention. J Am Med Assoc. 2020;323(13):1239–1242. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.2648. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cucinotta D., Vanelli M. WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic. Acta Biomed. 2020 Mar 19;91(1):157–160. doi: 10.23750/abm.v91i1.9397. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (WHO) 2020. Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports.https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situatio...
    1. Chowkwanyun M., Reed A.L., Jr. Racial health disparities and covid-19 - caution and context. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jul 16;383(3):201–203. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2012910. - DOI - PubMed
    1. U.S. Census Bureau. QuickFacts . 2018. United States.https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219