Black Fayette County patients more likely to be hospitalized from coronavirus
Black patients in Fayette County have a higher rate of hospitalization than white patients, and more women than men have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to new data released Tuesday by Fayette County health officials.
Kentucky’s second-largest county reported 11 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, bringing the total number of people infected in Fayette County to 170. No new deaths were reported Tuesday.
To date, seven people from Fayette County have died, according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.
Around 18 percent of the cases — or 31 people — in Lexington have required hospitalization, health department officials said.
For the first time on Tuesday, the health department released other demographic information on the 170 patients.
The vast majority — 62 percent or 105 patients — are white. The second-highest number of infections — 31 percent or 52 cases — occurred in black patients.
Fayette County’s population is only 15 percent black but 31 percent of the 170 are black, the data shows.
The remaining Fayette County patients are Hispanic, with 3 percent of the total cases. Roughly 7 percent of Fayette County’s population is Hispanic. The remaining 4 percent of cases are Asian. Fayette County’s Asian population is 4 percent.
Black patients are also being hospitalized more often than white patients, according to the county health department data. Approximately 30 percent of all blacks testing positive have had to be hospitalized with only 12 percent of whites who have tested positive have needed inpatient treatment, the data shows.
Of the 31 patients hospitalized, more than half are black.
Several other cities and states have reported disproportionate rates of infection and deaths in black populations.
The population of Milwaukee County, Wis., is 26 percent black, but almost half of the county’s 945 coronavirus patients are black, according to ProPublica. African-Americans also account for 81 percent of the county’s 27 deaths, ProPublica reported.
On Monday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said slightly more than 70 percent of those who died of COVID-19 in that southern state were black.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday to release “daily racial and ethnic demographic data related to” coronavirus testing in response to news reports about high rates of infection and death in black patients.
In Fayette County, more women than men have tested positive, the data shows.
About 109 women have tested positive in Fayette County compared to 61 men. Women have also been hospitalized more often in Fayette County for treatment. Twenty women have been hospitalized compared to 11 men.
The age group with the most hospitalizations are those between the ages of 55 and 74.
Of the 57 patients in that age category who contracted the respiratory illness, 18 have required hospitalization. That represents 58 percent of the state’s 31 hospitalizations.
Of the five patients over the age of 75, four have required hospitalization, the data shows.
All seven of the patients who died in Fayette County were hospitalized. No additional information about the seven patients, including race, was released Tuesday.
There is good news.
More than half — or 89 patients— have already recovered from the illness, health department figures show.
Statewide, 65 people have died.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 3:05 PM.
