NEW ORLEANS – From the Data Center, a nonprofit that’s been gathering data about southeast Louisiana since 1997:
As of March 25, New Orleans has the ninth largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, even though it’s a much smaller city than the likes of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. New Orleans has more known cases than 36 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands.
As New Orleans leaders and decision makers organize to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, it’s important to recognize how many New Orleanians cannot participate in drive-up testing, cannot easily work from home, and are more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of pre-existing health conditions.
Nearly 1 in 5 New Orleans households do not have access to a vehicle—making drive-up testing nearly impossible. Fully 22 percent of New Orleanians have no access to internet (not even smart phones).
Also, New Orleans adults suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and other pre-existing health conditions at rates higher than in Seattle, New Rochelle, or New York City.
Compared to other early COVID-19 hot spots such as King County, WA (which includes Seattle), Westchester County, NY (includes New Rochelle and Yonkers) and New York City, New Orleans has higher poverty rates and lower average incomes.
Today, The Data Center releases a comprehensive set of demographic data relevant to mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on our beloved city. This data can inform decision makers in policymaking, program design and resource allocation as together we strive to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
See these stats and more at:
www.datacenterresearch.org/covid-19-data-and-information/demographic-data/
