Data shows virus’ greater impact on county’s black residents

The Allegheny County Health Department announced Saturday it has added more demographic data to its online COVID-19 reports, and the data shows more clearly that the disease is having a disproportionate effect on African Americans.

Also, no additional COVID-19 deaths were reported Saturday by the health department, which recorded 11 additional positive cases of infection.

In updating its data dashboard, the county health department shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has more dramatically affected African Americans, who represent 13% of the county population but 27% of positive cases, 31% of hospitalizations and 20% of the deaths. The black population also has undergone 20% of COVID19 testing in the county.

The county has been saying the disease is disproportionately affecting African Americans and has been posting some numbers.

“The data show that while we’re doing a good job at getting testing to the black community, the pandemic is tragically taking a larger toll on this community,” said Dr. Debra Bogen, the health department director.

She said the many causes of the “significant health disparity” include the higher rates of underlying health conditions linked to poverty, physical environment and limited access to medical care.

The black population also has a higher exposure to the virus “due to not being able to work from home or from working in close contact with others, a greater likelihood of living in crowded homes, and other factors,” she said.

“These are health equity concerns we must continue to address in earnest,” Dr. Bogen said in a statement.

The updates in COVID-19 cases involving African Americans are the result of the health department’s enhanced interactive dashboard on the the county website that includes more information about race and ethnicity.

That became possible through

an agreement that allows more data from the county data warehouse to be integrated with data concerning COVID-19 cases the county receives from the state’s PANEDSS database.

“Information on the race and ethnicity of those tested for COVID-19 was often missing from PA-NEDSS,” the health department said. “Recognizing that, the department began asking about race and ethnicity during case investigations and working with labs and healthcare providers to record this information for individuals tested.

“Where information was missing for a person in the state’s data, the person was then matched against the county’s data,” the health department stated. “If demographics were available for the person, that information now appears in the dashboard.”

Dr. Bogen and Health Services Director Marc Cherna convened the COVID-19 Equity Task Force to give a group of community leaders a forum to provide feedback.

Improving race and ethnicity data and making it publicly available is one example of an important community concern the county is working together to address, the county said.

It warned, however, that data collection procedures and limitations of county data mean that some information about those affected by COVID-19 remains unknown.

The total number of hospitalizations in the county throughout the pandemic now is 357 reflecting two additional cases since Friday. The total number of COVID19 deaths in the county remains at 173, with 2,076 positive cases since the pandemic began in March.

The state Department of Health reported 463 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 78,462, with about three of every four patients already recovered from the infection. The state was not reporting any new deaths in Western Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Deaths statewide now total 6,211 — an increase of 49 deaths since Friday.