California nursing facilities with more Black, Latino residents hit harder by coronavirus: Study

Staff members at Cedar Mountain Post Acute in Yucaipa spruce up a toppled sign that was put up by members of the community to show their support for the nursing staff in 2020.(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Dec 1, 2020 / 07:28 AM PST

Updated: Dec 1, 2020 / 09:50 AM PST

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As COVID-19 once again surges across California, skilled nursing facilities with more Black and Latino residents are being hit harder than those with fewer residents of color, according to a new study.

Facilities with the highest number of Latino residents had coronavirus case rates 57% greater than those with few Latino residents.

In facilities where more than 2% of the residents were Black, case rates were as much as 40% higher than those without a significant number of Black patients, according to the research released Tuesday, which was commissioned by the nonprofit California Health Care Foundation and examined data from May and August.

The reasons for the disparities are unclear. One factor could be that more Black and Latino people live in lower-quality facilities, which are less equipped to deal with an infectious disease like COVID-19.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.