Coronavirus Hit Black Barnstable County Residents Hard

BARNSTABLE, MA — Black and Latino residents in Norfolk County contracted the virus at rates nearly three times higher than that of white residents, according to new data.

The Center for Disease Control data shows that the case rate for Black people in Barnstable County was 94 per 10,000 residents, compared to 32 per 10,000 for whites. The county-level data was released over the weekend by the New York Times, which sued the Centers for Disease Control to get it.

More white people overall contracted coronavirus in Barnstable County, accounting for 611 of the 673 cases where the race of the person was reported. But since white people make up about 92 percent of the county population, the rate of infection was vastly lower.

The imbalance is due to a range of factors, from poverty to living conditions, according to the CDC. Nationwide, American Indian, Black, and Latino people have the highest coronavirus hospitalization rates, the CDC found. Black and Latino people are also about 3-1/2 times more likely to die of coronavirus than white people, according to Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh

"Long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put some members of racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of getting COVID-19 or experiencing severe illness, regardless of age," the CDC said in a brief about the disproportionate impact of the pandemic.

The pandemic is slowing in Massachusetts — the state entered phase 3 on Monday — but health officials believe that the disease could come back in a second wave when the weather cools in the fall, coinciding with flu season. As of Sunday, Barnstable County had 1,557 residents test positive for coronavirus.