Immigration status, housing, and food-service work explain Covid-19’s burden on Latinx people

Latinx people in the U.S. are among those disproportionately affected by Covid-19, and a new analysis of data from 351 Massachusetts towns finds that being a recent immigrant, living in a household with a large number of people, and working in the food-service industry seems to especially predict Covid's burden among Latinx individuals. In Chelsea, a city on the outskirts of Boston, two-thirds of the population is Latinx — nearly half of whom are recent immigrants — and 70% of the town is classified as essential workers. The Covid-19 infection rate there was also five times the state's average. “That means that they work in food service, in the hospitality industry. They work in maintenance and cleaning services,” study author Jose Figueroa tells STAT's Elizabeth Cooney. “So you can see why a town like Chelsea is being devastated by the pandemic.” Read more here.