013. COVID-19 Impact on Diverse & Underserved Communities

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1 million people in the U.S. have been infected by COVID-19 as of April 30, 2020. This global pandemic has swept across communities leaving devastation and heartbreak behind. It has highlighted a longstanding problem of healthcare disparities plaguing poor and underserved communities which are most often populated by a large number of minorities. A more sobering realization is that the hospitalization and death rates which are disproportionately impacting African- American and Hispanics. In a recent Washington Post analysis, which compiled data from nine jurisdictions reporting infection and death rates by race, African Americans died at almost six times the rate of Caucasians.