The COVID-19 pandemic is harming minorities in New Hampshire at a disproportionate rate, exposing the inequalities at play in the health care system, the economy, and society in general, according to the health care professionals who spoke to U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan on Monday.
“The disparities we are seeing with COVID are not new, but we are unable to unsee them anymore,” said Marie-Elizabeth Ramas, a family physician at Lamprey Health Care in Nashua.
Hassan met with public health officials through a Zoom call on Monday for a roundtable discussion on how the pandemic is harming people of color, and what can be done about the disparity. The Senate is set to begin work in the coming days on the next COVID-19 relief package.
“The racial disparities that people have known existed for a long time have really been exacerbated by the virus,” Hassan said.
Of the 6,203 people in New Hampshire who have tested positive for the potentially deadly respiratory illness, the large majority are white, more than 74% of the cases. However, minorities are getting the illness at a rate higher than their share of the population, according to Trinidad Tellez, director of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Office of Health Equity.
For example, while Latinos make up 3.9% of the state’s population, 632 Latinos have tested positive for the illness. That’s 11.9% of all the COVID-19 cases in the state. African Americans, who make up 1.4% of the state’s population, account for 302 cases, or 6% of all COVID-19 cases, according to numbers compiled by DHHS.
Tellez said the state is collecting data on race and ethnicity in 84% of all positive cases, 93% of hospitalizations, and 90% on all COVID-19 deaths. The data collection helps public health officials target where resources need to go. Bobbie Bagley, Nashua’s Public Health Director, said knowing where the virus was showing up allowed Bagley and her team to respond to clusters of infections.
“When we learned about this pandemic, one of the most important things that we focused on was how it would be impacting our populations,” Bagley said.
That meant being able to have staff who understood a particular culture and speak the language as they educated communities on testing, mask wearing, and how to isolate if needed.
“We need to make sure we have the data on race and ethnicity to find where gaps exist and be able to provide education and tracing services in those population groups,” Bagley said.
Bagley and Jaime Hoebeke, the chief strategy officer with the Manchester Health Department, both said they needed to help people with more than just the virus. In both cities, people in minority groups were often considered “essential” employees during the lockdown and were unable to take leave from their jobs. That left them more vulnerable to catching the virus and bringing it back to their families.
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