Hispanics are contracting COVID-19 at a higher rate than any other community, so we have to raise awareness!
This disease spreads person to person, so no matter how much we love being in groups with our friends and familia, we have to chill out for now. Hispanics need to understand that you are at higher risk if you suffer from asthma, heart disease or diabetes, although we like to think we're invincible, we're NOT!
Here are some simple tips you can follow:
- Wash you hands often.
- Practice social distancing.
- Don't visit friends and family.
- Stay home as much as possible.
- Cover your face if you must go outside.
- Protect the most vulnerable and people over 60.
- Food shop no more than once a week, every two weeks if possible.
- Assume anybody can have the virus - 25% -50% of the people spreading the disease don't have symptoms.
Mayor Bill de Blasio shared the information Wednesday morning during his daily COVID-19 press briefing, where he noted that 34% of people who have died from the disease in New York City are from the Hispanic community, which makes up 29% of the city's total population. He also said that other contributing factors, including a language barrier, may be at play when it comes to the disparities. "I think its fair to say, language means [that] for some people, they aren’t getting as much information as they need and we want to start addressing that aggressively," he said.
New York City Health Department Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot shared similar sentiments:
"I am very concerned when I see the large percentage of Latinos who have died of this illness and even though we have made lots of efforts to reassure people that all of our public hospitals see individuals independent of their immigration status, independent of insurance status. The overlay of the anti-immigrant rhetoric across this country, I think, has real implications in the health of our community," she said.
We're never going to go back to normal, there will be a new normal. But this will be a good thing, we have learned tons during this time period on how to protect ourselves and make sure to stay put when we're sick. Stay at home and practice social distancing until further notice. Outside can wait for now as we FIGHT to stay healthy and alive.
The African American community has the second highest mortality rate with 28% of all reported city deaths. Meanwhile, the white community accounts for 27% of the deaths to date and 4% of the deaths are from the Asian community, according to the data.
So far 6,268 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 as of today.
Go to www.coronavirus.gov to learn about the disease and please understand that anybody can get this. For facts in Spanish click here.
Photo: Getty