ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The more minorities that live in a Central Florida ZIP code, the highter the rate of coronavirus, a public health expert found.
According to Eric Solomon, a public health researcher and retired Texas A&M professor emeritus, if a less-populated ZIP code is less than 20% white, a person is three times more likely to test positive for coronavirus than someone living in a ZIP code with the opposite racial and ethnic makeup, where 20% are minorities.
In more populated ZIP codes, the risk is three-and-a-half times greater.
Solomon said the underlying reasons are likely systemic.
“You’re dealing with populations that must work every day, go to work and they also have limited access to healthcare facilities and probably limited access to transportation,” he said.
Solomon said population density is still a factor. More minorities tend to live in more highly-populated areas. In Osceola County, that includes 34744 and 34746, which also have the highest number of cases. But he says looking at the cases alone doesn’t tell you where the problem might be the worst.
“When you’re looking at population density though, rather than cases, you come up with another zip code in the Celebration area, 747, where the population isn’t as high, but there’s a fairly, relative high incidence of the coronavirus,” Solomon said. “When you go to the grocery store or you go to the gas station, you need to have some idea of the concentration of the virus in your area because that’s basically your risk.”
According to population density, 34747 has the highest infection rate in Osceola County, slightly higher than 34744 and 34746, even though its number of cases is only the fifth-largest.
In Solomon’s analysis of both Orange and Osceola counties, Solomon said Hispanic communities are the minority population most disproportionately affected.
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“Language can be barriers in these areas as well,” he said.
In Orange County, questions are now sometimes being answered in Spanish. Solomon said that’s one example of change officials can make if they have the right information.
“For public health officials, it shows where their strategy is working and where it isn’t working,” he said.
© 2020 Cox Media Group
