The Los Angeles Times reports that county officials in southern California had been hopeful following a drop in COVID-19 cases among Latino and Black residents, who have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. But as the nation is now seeing terrifying infection and hospitalization rates, that optimism is being dashed. “In L.A. County, Latino residents are now becoming infected with the virus at more than double the rate of white residents,” the report said.
Data shows the death rate among Latino residents is also worsening as the community has already been devastated by the pandemic. The report said that Latino residents have represented nearly half of California’s nearly 20,300 COVID-19 deaths as of Dec. 9, “even though they represent only 38% of the state’s population, according to state data. They also represent 58% of total coronavirus cases.”
The rise is being attributed in part to the fact that Latinos make up a significant portion of essential workers who don’t have the option of working from home during a pandemic. ABC News reported in May that data from the Economic Policy Institute showed that while Latinos were “just over 18% of the population,” they represented “21% of the essential workforce.”
Employers from food processing plants to grocery stores should be obligated to take all precautions that will protect both worker and customer, but that isn’t happening. The L.A. Times reported that “less than 60% of workplaces visited by inspectors during a recent week were fully compliant with COVID-19 safety rules,” data from the L.A. County Public Health Office showed.
“In L.A. County, only 61% of restaurants and bars visited between Nov. 25 and Thursday complied with coronavirus rules: 71% of gyms were in compliance, as were 69% of retail stores and indoor malls, 48% of food markets and 46% of hotels,” the report said, with violations including lack of mask and social distancing enforcement. “None of the 14 garment manufacturers visited by the county was in full compliance.”
But other factors also come into play. “Some Latino neighborhoods are more densely populated, making the virus easier to spread,” the report continued. “Five of the 25 communities with the highest infection rates in L.A. County are in the northeast San Fernando Valley—in ZIP codes with high rates of crowded housing and areas that are home to large numbers of essential workers who are at prime risk of infection.”
There have been calls to prioritize essential workers from agriculture for the COVID-19 vaccine, following the virus harshly impacting essential workers feeding America. These workers, nonprofit environmental journalism organization InsideClimate News said in July, are “contracting the virus at much higher rates than people in any other other occupation.”
But undocumented farmworkers, who make up a significant portion of these laborers, were barred from the one round of financial relief the federal government sent out this year, and talks about sending out one lousy $600 check seem to be excluding them yet again. “The government has designated farmworkers as essential workers; they’re expected to work during a pandemic,” Farmworker Justice President Bruce Goldstein told HuffPost last month.
Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner wrote last week that COVID-19 hospitalizations on the Wednesday of that week “exceeded 100,000 for the first time. The 203,427 new cases logged on Wednesday was another record. One week after Thanksgiving, any additional cases from the ill-advised travel are only starting to appear, and deaths from those gatherings of families and friends are still days or weeks from contributing to the totals.”
More major holidays are again quickly approaching, and there will again be pressure to urge people to stay home. And many will—not just when it comes to the holidays, but for daily work too. But for others, like essential workers, that just isn’t an option.
“It is very clear and quite alarming that certain groups are once again bearing a greater burden than others,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said according to the L.A. Times. “The gaps between race and ethnicity groups, where we made a lot of progress in closing in September, have now once again dramatically widened, particularly for our Latino residents. All groups, as you’ll see, are in fact experiencing increases.”