{"id":1013,"date":"2020-12-13T18:59:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T23:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/gdjfall20\/?p=1013"},"modified":"2020-12-13T19:05:59","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T00:05:59","slug":"latino-georgians-hit-hard-by-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyujournalismprojects.org\/gdjfall20\/index.php\/2020\/12\/13\/latino-georgians-hit-hard-by-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Latino Georgians hit hard by COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 10, Ana, 26, drove her mother to the hospital. The symptoms were minor, but enough for Ana to worry about her mother. Three days later, they got the lab results back. Positive for COVID-19. Ana, a customer service representative, called off work, and stayed home to take care of her mom, who is diabetic. Ana had no symptoms, but because she was looking after her mother decided to get tested. On July 17, her mother was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Her mother felt cold, had difficulty breathing, and was confused. The next day, Ana received her own lab results. Positive for COVID-19. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ana went to the emergency room, but was discharged the same night. She spent a month in her home, experiencing fevers, body pains and difficulty breathing. To this day, her sense of smell remains altered by the disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ana lives with her parents, her 10-year-old son, her three siblings and two nephews. All of them, except her son caught the deadly virus. Ana\u2019s mom was in an intensive care unit for two months and came home on Sept. 18. \u201cWhile my mom was in ICU, we nearly lost her,\u201d Ana said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ana, a DACA recipient who asked only her first name be used, and her family are among the 55,598 Latinos in Georgia who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Dec. 9. The Peach State has reported a total of <\/b>476,044 cases of COVID-19 and 9,205 <\/b>coronavirus-related deaths as of Dec. 13.With roughly 1 million Latino residents, Latinos or Hispanics, of any race, make up 9.8%<\/span><\/a> of Georgia\u2019s population, but they account for 15%<\/span><\/a> of coronavirus cases in the state, according to the COVID Tracking Project<\/span><\/a>, a volunteer organization launched by The Atlantic dedicated to collecting data on COVID-19 in the United States and its territories.<\/span><\/p>\n

The following graphs show the racial breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Georgia.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>The COVID Tracking Project flagged the group\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n