Black, Latino Residents In Will County Hit Hardest By Coronavirus

WILL COUNTY, IL — Black and Hispanic communities in Will County were hit much harder by the coronavirus than white communities during the first 11 weeks of the outbreak, according to an analysis by the New York Times.

Black communities in Will County tested positive at a rate of 104 cases per 10,000 people — almost four times higher than the county's white population, according to the report. The same figure stood at 89 among Latinos in Will County, three times higher than the 28 cases per 10,000 white people, the report states.

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Will County's Asian population also tested positive at a higher rate than white people, with 34 cases per 10,000 people, according to the analysis.

Nationwide, the number of coronavirus cases per 10,000 people stood at 23 for whites, 62 for Blacks and 73 for Latinos. That means Black communities in Will County tested positive at more than one and a half times the national rate for Latinos.

The New York Times' report analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was only released after the newspaper sued for access. The data includes information on about 640,000 cases recorded before May 28 in nearly 1,000 counties across the U.S., including dozens in Illinois.

The U.S. Census Bureau lists Will County as one of the 100 largest counties by population in the nation, and the fourth most populous county in Illinois.

Despite the high number of cases found among Hispanic, Asian and Black communities, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, they only represent 31.6 percent of the county's population.

The nationwide analysis shows Black and Latino people are nearly twice as likely to die from the coronavirus as white people, the New York Times reports.

The disparities are even wider when comparing cases and deaths within older age groups, the report states. More than a quarter of Latino people who died from coronavirus-related conditions were younger than 60, while only 6 percent of white people who died were that young, the analysis shows.

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While many have pointed to a higher prevalence of underlying health issues among Black and Latino people to explain those communities' higher death rates, the new CDC data "underscores inequities unrelated to other health issues," the NY Times reports.

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The analysis quotes several public health officials and researchers who say the data shows infections have been much more prevalent among those who can't work from home amid the pandemic.

"Some people have kind of waved away the disparities by saying, 'Oh, that's just underlying health conditions,'" Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the NY Times. "That's much harder to do with the case data."

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The NY Times noted that CDC officials in June estimated the real number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. is likely about 10 times higher than the official tally.

People with more severe infections are more likely to seek medical treatment and be tested, which could explain part of the racial disparities revealed by the data, the report states. However, CDC officials said there are clear, significant racial disparities in the number of cases and deaths, the NY Times reports.

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