According to public health officials, the average number of Latino residents dying of coronavirus daily in the province of Los Angeles has increased by more than 1,000%.
Los Angeles is struggling with one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the U.S., amid a winter congestion that has overwhelmed hospitals in the region. The Latino population of LA province had the heaviest of the crisis.
In November, the average number of residents of Latino in the province of LA each day to Covid-19 is 3.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. That is now 40 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. “This is an increase of more than 1,000%,” Barbara Ferrer, the provincial director of public health, said at a news conference this week.
“Los Angeles under Covid-19 won the World Cup in baseball, the championship in basketball and has the title for most Covid-19 infections and most Latinos who lose their lives,” said Sonja Diaz, the founder’s director of the Latino, said. Policy and Political Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles, to the Guardian.
The population of Los Angeles is 48.6% Latino, but Latinos die at more than one and a half times that of all Los Angeles residents. This week, 231 Latinos per 100,000 people in the province of Los Angeles are dying, according to provincial data, compared to 82 white people per 100,000. “Our Latinx community is actually suffering the worst of this pandemic,” Ferrer said.
This is a devastating trend that is also being reflected in other parts of the state. Latinos represent 38.9% of California’s population, but are 55% of the positive Covid-19 cases and nearly half of the deaths.
Diaz pointed out that Latinos make up a large part of the essential workforce and are often forced to risk exposure to the virus and earn a salary.
“Nationally, Latino households have 1.6 wage earners per household, compared to 1.2 in non-Spanish households,” Diaz said. ‘This means that there are more Latino households with adults leaving home every day due to the hyper-segmentation of Latino workers into essential work situations. This means that they will be more exposed to Covid-19, just to ensure that they have the necessary money to keep shelter and food in their homes. They are not going to work because they want to be heroes, but because our economy and the current decision-making of our leaders require them to come to work. ”
Many of these positions reported that they had to work through unsafe conditions without protective equipment and no social distance measures, Diaz said, and did not have access to sick leave, despite legislation requiring employers to provide sick leave with respect to Covid-19 .
“No matter what, these colored people show up to work and they show up to work under dangerous conditions that have not been rectified,” Diaz said. “We still expect these low-wage workers to show up at work without the necessary common sense safety measures.”
California lifted its state home order this week after recording improved trends in the state’s infection rate, hospitalizations, capacity for intensive care units and vaccinations.
The announcement comes after a relentless increase in cases after the winter holidays overwhelmed the state’s medical system, leaving many provinces with limited ICU capacity.
However, parts of the state, including Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, are still seeing high infection rates.
Meanwhile, the state is trying to accelerate vaccination after a slow start earlier in the year. In most regions, residents over the age of 65 are vaccinated, in addition to health workers and first responders.
Diaz fears what reopening will do to the Latino population. Already throughout the Latino communities in Los Angeles, everyone knows someone who has had the virus.
“We are an embarrassment to industrialized societies in our ability to get Covid-19 under control,” Diaz said. “As a result, Californians of color get sick and die and have trouble recovering at the same time. At the same time, millions of Californians are demanding that they put their bodies at risk.”