File photo
File photo
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced a new COVID-19 strategy as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow in the city's Latino community.
As of May 18, Illinois reported 94,191 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 4,177 deaths. Chicago reported 36,621 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 1,636 fatalities.
Of those cases, 12,154 are Hispanics, 8,806 are African American and 9,197 are victims of unknown race. The city’s director of public health, Dr. Allison Arwady, said just a month ago Latinos accounted for 14% of the city’s COVID-19 cases and 9% of the deaths. Now, Latinos make up 37% of cases and 25% of the deaths, she said.
“As you can see, these numbers are quite profound and they call us to another moment of action and a sense of urgency,” Lightfoot told WBEZ, Chicago's National Public Radio station. “Equity and inclusion are not just feel-good expressions, they truly are, in the middle of this pandemic, the difference between life and death.”
According to WBEZ, Lightfoot launched a similar racial rapid response teams last month for African American communities following a WBEZ story that showed black Chicagoans were dying of COVID-19 at disproportionate rates.
The goal of both teams is to develop "hyperlocal, data-informed strategies to slow the spread of the COVID-19 and improve health outcomes among communities that have been most heavily impacted,” city officials told the Chicago Tribune.
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