It is well studied at this point that COVID-19 has been disproportionately affecting racial and ethnic minorities. The CDC stated that these differences in risk of infection and hospitalizations may stem from long-standing systemic health and social inequities. Learning about these disparities, I was very curious about how they have been manifesting where we live, study, and practice: Maricopa County. I combed through the Maricopa County COVID-19 Data Archive’s daily data reports to find information on how different racial/ethnic groups have been affected by COVID-19. Data on cases and hospitalizations for these groups were updated on a 7-8-day basis since late April. Overall, it appears that American Indians and Alaskan Natives cases (Fig. 1) and hospitalizations (Fig. 2) in Maricopa County are rising disproportionately compared to all other groups. It will be extremely important to see how cases and hospitalizations continue to change over time and if increased efforts are made to mitigate this disparity for American Indians and Alaskan Natives.
Figure 1: COVID-19 cases per 100,000 for various racial/ethnic groups in Maricopa County from 4/26/20 to 7/6/20. Data for race/ethnic groups was updated on a 7-8-day basis by Maricopa County COVID-19 data archive. The “Other” race group was discontinued after 6/7/2020.
Figure 2: COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 for various racial/ethnic groups in Maricopa County from 4/26/20 to 7/6/20. Data for race/ethnic groups was updated on a 7-8-day basis by Maricopa County COVID-19 data archive. The “Other” race group was discontinued after 6/7/2020.
[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19 in Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups”. Your Health. Updated June 25, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html.
[2] Maricopa County. “COVID-19 Data Archive”. https://www.maricopa.gov/5555/COVID-19-Data-Archive.
Shivraj Grewal is a medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix. He is a Los Angeles native and graduated from the University of Chicago in 2017. After graduating, he worked as a clinical research fellow at the National Institutes of Health for two years where he developed an interest in translational research, health disparities, and data science. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, taking pictures, and collecting records.