Chicago works to reach more black residents amid COVID-19 outbreak

CHICAGO - The number of black Chicagoans becoming infected with the coronavirus and those dying of the disease remains disproportionately high, city officials said Monday.

Black residents made up about 46% of the 12,571 confirmed tests for the coronavirus and about 60% of the 500 deaths in the city linked to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, despite making up 30% of the city’s population.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city and neighborhood organizations working to share information about the virus and preventing its spread are focused on three communities — Auburn Gresham and South Shore on the city’s South Side and Austin on the West Side.

Health conditions that are more common among black Americans can make people more vulnerable to the virus, including diabetes and asthma. Experts also have pointed to higher uninsured rates and poorer access to health care among African Americans as an underlying cause of the gap.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

An analysis done by The Associated Press using available state and local data through Thursday showed that nearly one-third of those who have died are African American, with black people representing about 14% of the population in the areas covered in the analysis.

Federal data on race remains limited, but the Centers for Disease Control on Friday said 30% of patients to test positive for coronavirus and whose race was known were black. Racial information was missing for 75% of all cases, however, and the CDC did not include any breakdown on those who have died.

Lightfoot on Monday said maps showing higher rates of coronavirus cases and deaths in Chicago’s black and brown communities “illuminated the broken, and yes, racist system of inequality” that has cemented poverty and related issues for decades.

“We cannot sit idly by while this disease devastates certain parts of our communities,” she said.

Lightfoot said more than 60,000 face coverings will be distributed along with informational door hangers and flyers that are aimed at people who are older than 60, those who work essential jobs and those who share homes with multiple generations of family members.

The city is also planning a series of virtual town halls and an advertising campaign.

Chicago authorities first discussed the disparities two weeks ago, announcing that black residents then accounted for 72% of deaths and 52% of positive tests in the city.

Earlier Monday, a northern Illinois nursing home that announced last week that 22 residents and one staffer had died of the coronavirus said the virus had claimed the life of another staffer.

Symphony of Joliet spokeswoman Lauryn Allison said that privacy laws prevented her from providing any more information about the staff member. But Lakendel Evans told The (Joliet) Herald-News that her mother, Sandra Green, a 57-year-old certified nursing assistant, died at a Joliet hospital after spending 24 days on a ventilator.

Symphony of Joliet has been a focus amid the growing number of cases at the state’s long-term care facilities, and last week’s announcement prompted the city’s mayor to call for a state investigation of the facility.

Over the weekend, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration released information about individual facilities. That data showed that Symphony of Joliet and Windsor Manor of Carol Stream each had 81 COVID-19 cases, more than any such facility in Illinois. The data also showed that 286 coronavirus-related deaths — nearly a quarter of the state’s total — were linked to long-term care facilities.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office also reported that a fourth county jail detainee who had tested positive of the virus had died.

The sheriff’s department, which runs the jail, said Karl Battiste died Sunday at Stroger Hospital, where he had been treated since April 14. Battiste tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, but his official cause of death won’t be determined until an autopsy is conducted.

Battiste had been in custody since his arrest in January 2019 in the shooting death of a man earlier that month. He was being held without bond. According to Chicago police at the time, Battiste and a 55-year-old man had been arguing over garbage in a hallway of an apartment building when Battiste allegedly retrieved a handgun from his apartment, returned and shot the man in the head.

As of late Sunday, the sheriff’s office said 194 detainees with “mild-to-moderate” COVID-19 were being treated by the county-operated hospital, located at the jail, with another 21 being treated at area hospitals.

Late last month, as the number of detainees to test positive continued to climb, the county’s chief judge late last month ordered expedited bond hearings in an effort to secure the release of as many nonviolent offenders as quickly as possible. The population of the jail has dropped by more than 1,100 to 4,233 as of late last week.