City starts campaign to reach African Americans
Cluster of COVID-19 cases confirmed on north side
Milwaukee leaders on Thursday are launching a public awareness campaign about coronavirus symptoms and prevention that is focused on African Americans as they work to determine why a number of confirmed cases are clustered on the city’s north side, officials say.
On Thursday, health officials said the city had 304 confirmed coronavirus cases with the largest concentrations in parts of the city with the most African American residents.
Ben Weston, medical services director for Milwaukee County’s Office of Emergency Management, emphasized that coronavirus is in all communities in Milwaukee County and will continue to affect all residents.
He also said during a virtual news conference Thursday afternoon that it appears that the north end of the county, specifically the north side of Milwaukee, currently has the greatest amount of confirmed coronavirus cases.
Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said Wednesday that of the 248 confirmed coronavirus cases reported as of 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, 52% of them involved African Americans. While that’s just slightly more than half of the cases, it’s important to note that African Americans make up about 39% of the city’s population.
In an update Thursday, Kowalik said that of the total positive and negative tests between March 1 and March 26, about 22% were for people identifying as white, about 27% were people identifying as black and about 50% are people who didn’t indicate a race or ethnicity.
“You’re looking at testing between African American and white individuals being kind of close but yet about half of the cases are African American at this point in time, so definitely there’s a disparity,” she said.
The seven people who died in Milwaukee County as of Thursday afternoon are African American.
“The deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) is spreading fast among Milwaukee’s African American population, and it has already claimed the lives of several African American men here,” Milwaukee Ald. Russell W. Stamper II said in a statement Thursday. “But those deaths — and a strict citywide Stay-at-Home order — don’t seem to be getting the attention of enough people in the community.
“The coronavirus pandemic is deadly serious, and all Milwaukee residents need to start getting the message IMMEDIATELY!”
As officials work to track the clusters on the north side — including looking at whether people were exposed at a specific event or gathering — they said they
want to get the word out quickly that coronavirus is spreading in the community.
“I just want to continue to highlight the need for critical information,” Kowalik said. “We are working on launching a campaign targeting the African American community.”
On Thursday, officials published public service announcement videos, and the campaign features local voices in the community, including officials in the city’s Health Department, director of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention Reggie Moore, WNOV program director Homer Blow and others.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett warned how quickly coronavirus is spreading — stressing no one should think of this as a problem mainly facing places like China, Italy or New York.
“What we have seen is no part of the city immune from this, no part of the county is immune from this,” Barrett said. “But at the same time, we must acknowledge that we are seeing a relatively high prevalence that’s on the northern part of the city of Milwaukee, where our African American population lives.”
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore urged people to take coronavirus — and the stay-athome order — seriously.
“I’m very disturbed by the fact that we have seen such a prevalence of the COVID-19 virus here on the north side of Milwaukee,” Moore said.
Moore, who was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago, noted that she has a compromised immune system.
“We have to take it very seriously. And I just want to say to all my beloved friends and constituents, I literally have sort of lost count of the numbers of contacts that I’ve had with people who were later diagnosed with COVID-19,” Moore said. “And so I really am taking the stayat-home to heart.”
State Rep. David Bowen, who announced this week that he tested positive for coronavirus, warned “it is a lot more dangerous than a lot of us think.”