New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
According to New Bedford health officials, Hispanics/Latinos are 20% of New Bedford’s population but account for 45.5% of the COVID-19 cases in the city. New Bedford’s white population was 67.2% of the city and accounted for 28.1% of the COVID-19 cases. This chart was made available on the City of New Bedford’s website:
While COVID-19 cases have been declining for weeks, the related deaths remain at a high. New Bedford health officials Monday reported six additional COVID-19 related deaths since Saturday, 11 new deaths since Friday, raising the total to 96 in the city. Mayor Jon Mitchell’s office reported 20 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases in New Bedford on Monday, bringing the total positive cases in the city to 2,066, up from 2,046 on Saturday. New Bedford health officials do not report COVID-19 numbers on Sundays.
At the time of this writing, the New Bedford mayor’s office did not have any analysis of why the Hispanic community was disproportionally impacted by the coronavirus.
Web MD did provide analysis on “Why are Minorities Hardest Hit by CIVID-19?“:
“We found that there were large disparities in the proportion of people at risk of COVID-19 from minority and low-income populations,” said study co-author Julia Raifman. She’s an assistant professor of health law, policy, and management at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Raifman believes decades of disparities in education, housing, jobs, and stress levels have contributed to an excess risk of chronic disease based on race, ethnicity, and income. And those same issues are exacerbating the COVID-19 crisis.
Other New Bedford coronavirus data:
