Wolf urges health care professionals to report race data related to coronavirus
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Gov. Tom Wolf is calling on medical professionals to report race and ethnicity data of those who test positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
About 69% of race data is unreported, Wolf said during a press conference Monday afternoon, “and there is little data when it comes to ethnicity.” Black communities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic across the United States, accounting for up to 70% of covid-19 deaths in some areas, according to The Washington Post.
“(Data) will help us to detect covid-19 before it becomes widespread in a community and we need to make sure testing is available to everyone,” Wolf said. “Everyone, regardless of previous medical care or existing relationships to physicians.”
Identifying where testing is taking place and the hours of operation at facilities will help vulnerable Pennsylvania residents have access to a coronavirus test, Wolf said.
In Western Pennsylvania, the Allegheny County Health Department started releasing data on the race of covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths earlier this month. As of Monday there were 212 confirmed cases of covid-19 among black residents, or 17% of cases. Across the county, there are 1,224 positive cases.
Of the 79 deaths reported in the county, nine were black residents, data shows.
Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha is also reporting the race of those who die from the coronavirus. As of Monday 14 men and 16 women between the ages of 61 and 109 have died from the virus. All of them were white.
State officials have been addressing these issues for weeks after the governor’s office announced the Covid-19 Response Task Force for Health Disparity. The goal of the force is to identify disparities and make recommendations to Wolf on how to address the consequences immediately and in the future as recovery begins.
“This is going to continue throughout the entirety of this crisis. The hope is that once we get past this that there will be something durable that will be useful to help close the disparities and have more work begin when we’re all past this crisis,” Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said.