Iowa’s confirmed novel coronavirus infections have sharply increased since the state expanded testing late last week. As hundreds of new cases were identified among employees of meatpacking plants, the share of Iowans with COVID-19 who are people of color also rose.
The Iowa Department of Public Health is now conducting “surveillance testing,” including asymptomatic people, at some of the nursing homes and meatpacking plants known to have COVID-19 outbreaks. At least seven of the state’s meatpacking plants have confirmed infections, and several facilities have shut down temporarily. That surveillance testing contributed to more than 1,200 new cases announced over the past four days alone.
Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans make up a large share of the workforce in meatpacking plants, which was one of several reasons people of color are overrepresented among Iowa’s COVID-19 cases.
When the state began releasing demographic data on its coronavirus website on April 14, Latinos comprised 16.4 percent of known cases and African Americans 8.7 percent. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 6.2 percent of Iowa residents are Hispanic or Latino and 4.0 percent are African-American.
According to data the state website published on April 22, Latinos now make up 20.8 percent and African Americans 13.8 percent of Iowans with COVID-19 infections, more than triple the share of those groups in the state population. Asians comprise 6.2 percent of known cases, more than double the 2.7 percent of Iowans estimated to be Asian.
For now, the Department of Public Health is not releasing demographic data on Iowa deaths attributed to COVID-19. Spokesperson Amy McCoy explained in an April 20 email, “Releasing information on race and death could get close to identifying an individual because the numbers are still low. CDC [the U.S. Centers for Disease Control] does not share this information until it is past a 100-case threshold.”
Bleeding Heartland will report regularly on the racial breakdown of coronavirus cases in Iowa. Unfortunately, infections have been confirmed in at least eleven incarcerated individuals in Coralville. They are being quarantined. But if the virus spreads to other corrections facilities, the racial disparity will continue to widen, because people of color have long been overrepresented in Iowa’s criminal justice system.
UPDATE: As more meatpacking plant workers are tested, a growing share of positive cases are from communities of color. Here are the figures published on the state’s website on April 24.
LATER UPDATE: Iowa set a new record for daily COVID-19 cases on April 25, with 648 new cases confirmed. The racial disparities widened again.
