Stark disparities in COVID-19 death rates; Floyd County’s losses at 5.5 per 10,000 residents

A USA Today analysis shows that of the 10 counties in the nation with the highest death rates from COVID-19, five are in Georgia.

Georgia Health News reviewed the findings and looked at how the state is trying to combat the record.

Hancock County is No. 1 on the list. The Middle Georgia county, with a death rate from COVID-19 of 45.7 per 10,000 residents, became a virus hot spot after outbreaks in two nursing homes, where at least 27 residents have died.

Floyd County — with 55 deaths as of Monday — had a fatality rate of 5.5 per 10,000 residents. It was 10.9 in Chattooga, which has lost 27 out of its 24,766 residents to the novel coronavirus.

Bartow’s death rate stood at 8.3 per 10,000 on Monday; Gordon was at 7.2; and Polk County’s 25 fatalities equaled a rate of 5.75 per 10,000 people.

USA Today found that many counties with the highest COVID death rates nationally have a majority of their populations being people of color. In Hancock County, three in four residents are in that demographic.

Among Georgia counties on the national death rate listing, Randolph at No. 3 and Terrell at No. 4 each have populations that are nearly two-thirds people of color, almost all of them AfricanAmericans.

The county with the eighthhighest death rate, Early, has a population that consists of 54% minorities. Jenkins, which is 10th, has 44% people of color.

Each of these Georgia counties has had a major COVID outbreak at one or more nursing homes.

Floyd County is 80.4% white, according to 2019 census estimates, and so are 45 of the 55 fatalities — equal to 81.8%. People of color account for six of the deaths and the rest are listed as of unknown race.

Twelve of the 50 U.S. counties with the highest death rates are in Georgia. None are in major metro areas, and Dougherty, home of the city of Albany, is the only one that’s not considered rural.

The Georgia counties have several elements in common, said Jimmy Lewis, CEO of Hometown Health, an association of rural hospitals in the state. These factors include high levels of poverty and chronic disease, high uninsured rates, more older residents, and medical care deficits, he said.

The state Department of Public Health says COVID-19 has disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority groups in Georgia and across the nation.

“Inequities in the social determinants of health, such as access to a quality education, poverty, and health care utilization/access put racial and ethnic minority groups at an increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19,’’ Nancy Nydam, a Public Health spokeswoman, said Friday.

Rural areas are hit hardest by these inequities, she said. Public Health has created a team to examine the impact of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic groups in the state, and how to address these

problems, Nydam added.