Officials: Pennsylvania coronavirus reporting largely lacks mandated race, ethnicity data

Health care systems still aren’t providing crucial race and ethnicity data when reporting coronavirus cases to the Department of Health, leaving a wide swath of some vulnerable populations unaccounted for, officials said Monday.

A mandate from Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine says facilities and providers include demographic data along with other information such as age and residence. Despite that, race and ethnicity data remains missing for more than two-thirds of the state’s positive covid-19 cases.

“One of the problems we have is that we have heard how covid-19 is hitting minority populations – in particular African-Americans – hardest across the United States,” Gov. Tom Wolf said during a call with reporters.

He said the anecdotal evidence in Pennsylvania indicates the same thing, but without the race and ethnicity data for each positive case, it’s impossible to tell.

Wolf announced earlier this month that he was creating the Health Disparity Task Force to identify how minority communities are being affected and how to help them. Complete data, he said, is key to the work the task force is trying to do.

About 68% of race data is missing from the more than 42,000 covid-19 cases across the state, Wolf said, and there is barely any data provided on ethnicity.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is heading the task force, which is working with the Office of Health Equity and has met three times so far.

“Our biggest concerns heard from these communities are improving data collection and increasing access to free testing,” Fetterman said.

Wolf said making virus testing more accessible to the populations most at risk is key to lessening racial disparities underscored by the pandemic.

The Washington Post analyzed the sparse racial data relating to covid-19 cases earlier this month, noting that few areas were reporting that information publicly.

For example, in Milwaukee County, 73% of covid-19 deaths were among African Americans, though they make up 26% of the county’s population. In Chicago, 32% of the population is black, but African Americans make up 67% of covid-19 deaths, according to the Post.

Statewide in Louisiana, 32% of the population is black; 70% of the state’s virus deaths have been among African Americans. In Illinois, those percentages are 14% and 42%.