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Between March 2020 and the end of December, Denver reported just under seven cases of COVID-19 per 100 people, but that number masked huge variations in who actually got sick.
A new map from the Colorado Health Institute shows the number of coronavirus cases relative to the population in neighborhoods from Douglas County to Weld County, and reveals poorer neighborhoods had more cases than wealthier ones nearby.
The Westwood neighborhood of Denver has been the hardest hit, with about 2.7 times more cases identified relative to the population than the regional average. The neighboring Platt Park neighborhood, on the other hand, had less than a third of cases on average, or about an eighth of the rate for Westwood, which can be reached in a quick drive on Mississippi Avenue.
Westwood has been hit hard by the pandemic on several fronts, said Paul Casey, executive director of Westwood Unidos. Many residents lost their jobs during the stay-at-home order in spring 2020, and those who were still working were at risk of bringing the virus back to their families, including the grandparents who live with them, he said. declared.
“It really went like wildfire in the neighborhood,” he said.
When data is mapped, Denver’s “Upside Down” of neighborhoods where banks would not lend money in the first half of the 20th century due to their demographics is visible, said Joe Hanel, director of communications at the Colorado Health Institute.
The L roughly follows Highways 70 and 25 and stands out on maps where more people live in poverty, have less education, have shorter lifespans, or even fewer trees in their neighborhoods.
It’s no surprise that these neighborhoods, where people are more likely to be essential workers and live in overcrowded housing, have been hit hardest by the pandemic, Hanel said.
“It’s a model that is familiar to public health researchers in Denver,” he said.
A significant exception to the trend is Boulder, which has recorded a large number of cases despite a relatively affluent population. This could reflect the outbreak at the University of Colorado Boulder, which has infected more than 3,700 students and staff, Hanel said.
The data comes from 11 major healthcare providers, including Kaiser Permanente Colorado hospitals and outpatient clinics, which served about one in four people in the metro area, Hanel said. It only includes COVID-19 cases documented in medical records between April and December, so people who have tested positive on a public site and have shown symptoms at home are not counted. .
Yet even with the limitations, it shows which areas have been affected more than others, he said.
Significant differences are also appearing in Weld, Adams and Arapahoe counties, with richer areas showing fewer cases, Hanel said. Jefferson and Douglas counties appear to have been relatively spared, although the lack of data from many parts of these counties makes it a bit more difficult to draw conclusions.
“What we’re seeing here is that COVID is following socio-economic models,” he said.
Vaccination clinics in the Westwood neighborhood have “maxed out” the available slots, but a significant number of people are still unprotected as vaccines are not licensed for children under 12, Casey said. Couples in Westwood tend to have more children than in Denver as a whole, and it might be difficult to protect them if funding for immunization clinics starts to dry up, he said.
“I am worried because it is not over,” he said.
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