- Highest number impacted by race: Whites
- Highest case rate by race: Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders
- Highest death rate by race: Hispanics
- 64% of deaths were related to long-term care facilities
- Most common symptoms: cough, fever
King County and Seattle, Washington are where the biggest group of early Covid-19 cases in the U.S. were detected, primarily in a single nursing home.
Since then, the county and city have analyzed a wealth of data to help give a picture of the virus's impact in a number of important categories.
Race
Note: 30% of cases do not name a race so cannot be factored in. Additionally, scientists say the vast majority of coronavirus patients have few to no symptom and are never diagnosed. If these numbers and factors were known, they could change the results provided.
King County reported 6,940 confirmed cases through May 8. The rate of confirmed cases is highest among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders at 755 cases per 100,000.
Next are Hispanics at 656 cases per 100,000 and then Blacks at 354 cases per 100,000. Whites have the lowest rate at 154 per 100,000.
Rates of confirmed deaths (485 total deaths): Hispanics are highest with 52 deaths per 100,000. Whites have 20 deaths per 100,000. There are no statistically significant differences reported among other rates and ethnic groups.
Long-term care facilities
Nearly 64% of King County's coronavirus-related deaths (327) occurred among those related to long-term care facilities. Forty-five (45) deaths are related to Life Care Center of Kirkland. The number of deaths from these facilities peaked in April.
The average age of long-term care residents who got sick from Covid-19 is 80. More women got sick and died than did men among both residents and employees but the statistics did not indicate whether there are more female residents and workers, overall, than male. There was only one death among a long term care employee: an Asian person age 58.
Co-morbidity among long-term care- related cases
"Co-morbidity" refers to the presence of other, pre-existing chronic conditions. A significant number of patients who got sick from Covid-19 had heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease and lung disease.
The most common symptoms reported were cough and fever.
Read more data from King County here:
https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/LTCF.aspx
The point being that no one can use “we did not know” as an excuse for not protecting the vulnerable in long term care facilities. It was clear right at the start by looking at Italy and the early cases in Washington state.
It is incorrect to refer to Hispanics as a race because Hispanics are of all races
I have been wondering if the percent of deaths that are men varies between races.
Have you seen any statistics that breaks them down that way?
In a 4 year period I picked up MRSA, first in an older and dirty hospital. Second time I was in a rehab place which was also old and I was there recovering from a concussion. Saw my gp when I got out and he spotted the MRSA yet again.
When New York and New Jersey both put seniors with the virus into privately owned nursing homes I just couldn't believe it. I did write to the Governor of NJ to suggest that while after the fact they would be cleaning and testing for the virus, that they also do the same checking and cleaning for MRSA. Well they are not going to do it and my observation was that where there are mainly older people, there is benign neglect. Cleaning just is not a priority and all I saw was the floors were swept every other day.
MRSA is an ongoing and contagious problem that is very difficult to get rid of. I just see no interest these days in people who are say 60 and over but who can spread things to younger people when they get out of those to me anyway, awful places.