Chicago has entered Phase 3 of the Re-Opening of Chicago Plan. Are you wondering where the recent hot pockets are located? Check out our COVID-19 Statistics to see where the infection continues to grow.
The following top Illinois Zip Codes that are largely Hispanic are continuing to climb with COVID-19 outbreaks. This data is based on the daily changes in total reported confirmed COVID-19 cases by Zip Code obtained from the Illinois Department of Public Health statistics page. The reported counts include data from 6/12/20, 6/13/20 and 6/14/20. These are the top Zip Codes in Illinois where 15 or more cases have been reported between last Friday and last Sunday.
Of those identified, Hispanic majority zipcodes account for 50%+ of the remaining hot pockets where COVID-19 infections continue to grow. Majority White Zip codes follow with 7 out of 26, followed by Black Majority Zip Codes at 6 out of 26 Zip Codes.
In early April, Latino communities in Chicago experienced a fast growing number of COVIS-10 Cases.
As of 4/14/20, the Top Fastest growing Illinois Zip Codes reporting new COVID-19 cases shifted disproportionately to Latino populations based on the ethnic racial makeup of those Zip Codes. The CDC needs to immediately begin releasing detailed data on actual confirmed Coronavirus positive cases and deaths by Zip Code to help effectively target emerging hot pockets. There remains no available data reporting death’s by zip code impacting the Latino community.
Of the 710,648 people that live in the top 10 Zip Codes (2014 Census estimates from https://zipdatamaps.com/), the racial break down of these combined communities is as follows:
This new data suggests that Mayor Lightfoot’s campaign targeting African American and other communities has been highly effective at slowing growth rates in many majority African American and other neighborhoods where English is broadly spoken. The growth rates in majority Latino neighborhoods suggests similar outreach efforts and analysis is needed targeting Latino neighborhoods where the virus is growing at the highest rates across Illinois.
Yesterday, a coalition of Latino leaders issued a press release calling on such a well needed outreach campaign to address the unique cultural and language needs of the Latino communities.
Other observed trends from yesterday’s data is the emergence of University Village into the top position for fastest growing Zip Code statewide at an alarming rate of 27% daily growth over the most recent 2 day period. We speculate that this may be a result of UIC and possibly the increase in availability of rapid testing in that zip code.
Yesterday I spent time driving into some of the Zip Codes that were experiencing the greatest growth rates that reported 100 or more Coronavirus confirmed positive tests. I observed a lack of social distancing with many young African American men not practicing social distancing or wearing protective masks or gloves congregating outside various essential businesses like retail stores and liquor stores. I observed an instance amongst young male Latinos as well. I observed problems at shopping centers with essential staff not having protective clothing or enforcing social distancing at the entrances or inside their stores. Customers entering stores generally are not wearing protective wraps around their faces.
It appears that these locations are economically disadvantaged largely. The residents of these zip codes need help in being educated on prevention measures to curtail the expanding growth rates of the Coronavirus. Businesses operating may need government inspectors to enforce social distancing recommendations through outreach. Ticketing of individuals willfully disregarding social distancing measures in larger groups may be necessary. The State of Illinois should prioritize deployment of the new Rapid 5 minute test equipment to suspected Coronavirus patients in these zip codes to more effectively curtail the growth of the virus to the general surrounding population. Essential service workers need to be wearing protective covering of some sort to help minimize and slow the virus transmission. A ban on shopping to customers not wearing protective coverings may need to be considered in the highest growth areas to protect those residents.
Click the Excel button below to copy the data above into a sortable spreadsheet.
