Latino communities in Georgia hit hard by COVID-19
When the pandemic hit, Georgia-based non-profit Hispanic Alliance shifted its services. The mission now was to make sure no Latino family in the city of Gainesville went hungry. The Hispanic Alliance, known as La Alianza, in Spanish, received 40,000 pounds in food donations and has distributed fresh, nutritious and culturally appropriate ingredients to 9,000 families since April, according to Vanesa Sarazua, founder and executive director of the Hispanic Alliance.
“Our operations switched to helping people with basic needs,” said Sarazua, who contracted COVID-19 in July. “We don’t see the situation getting any better.”
Sarazua said the organization’s November food distribution was the second largest one, with 700 families receiving assistance through their drive through. The first largest event was in May, with 750 families receiving boxes of food.
As the coronavirus tears through the nation, in Georgia, Latinos continue to disproportionately feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Latinos or Hispanics, of any race, make up 9.8% of Georgia’s population, but they account for 15% of coronavirus cases in the state.
The following graphs show the racial breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Georgia. The state has reported a total of 443,822 cases of COVID-19 and 8,971 coronavirus-related deaths as of Dec. 6. With roughly 1 million residents, Latinos account for 52,897 of all cases in the state and 536 deaths as of Dec. 6, according to the COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer organization launched by The Atlantic dedicated to collecting data on COVID-19 in the United States and its territories.
The COVID Tracking Project flagged the group’s case proportion as suggestive of ethnic disparity due to three criteria: it is at least 33% higher than the Census Percentage of Population, it remains elevated whether the project includes or excludes cases with unknown race or ethnicity and it is based on at least 30 actual cases or deaths.
For Sarazua, the pandemic has exacerbated the disparities Latinos faced before the crisis, such as limited access to healthcare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified discrimination, healthcare utilization and occupation as factors that contribute to increased COVID-19 risk among racial and ethnic “minority” groups.
Sarazua said many Latino Georgians in her community struggle with not knowing when they should seek medical attention, and losing their jobs and working less hours, as those who are undocumented are excluded from federal economic aid. “They had to tough out the covid storm on their own with no resources,” Sarazua said.
The high number of COVID-19 cases among Latino Georgians may be in part due to their overrepresentation in the essential workforce, including farm and poultry factory workers.
“The jobs they have to do are critical,” Sarazua said. “The immigrant workforce is important.” In Georgia, one in eight workers is an immigrant, making up a crucial part of the state’s labor force, according to the American Immigration Council.
Back in April, hundreds of poultry workers in Hall County, in northeastern Georgia, tested positive for the novel virus. Hall County, with a population of 206,349 residents, has so far reported 12,352 cases of the coronavirus, and has in the past two weeks reported 419 cases per 100,000 residents. Hispanics or Latinos make up 9.4% of the population of the Hall County city of Gainesville, known as “Poultry Capital of the World,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
One out of every four Latino poultry workers were testing positive for COVID-19, according to local reports from June. Latinos make up 30% of the workforce in the meat and poultry industry but 56% of cases, according to Atlanta Magazine.
Meanwhile, in southern Georgia, cases have spiked due to infections among farmworkers, according to the nonprofit Georgia Health News. In May, COVID-19 cases tripled in Echols County after a testing event held by the South Health District and the Migrant Farmworkers Clinic, Valdosta Daily Times reported. Latinos make up 24.6% of the population in Echols County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Among initiatives to address the disparities affecting Latino communities in the state, Emory University teamed up in August with the Mexican Consulate in the capital city of Atlanta totest Latino residents for COVID-19. Other organizations, like Community Organized Relief Efforts, have conducted free testing in Georgia. The Latino Community Fund launched in March a COVID-19 relief fund to assist vulnerable communities, aiding in food distribution, testing and rent payments.
“We need to discuss how to make things better while it’s still fresh in our minds,” Sarazua said. “We need to improve on protecting critical, frontline essential workers in a crisis. It’s very important to discuss and plan ahead as a nation.”