So far, there have been 13 COVID-19 related deaths in St. Louis – the most recent death was announced on Thursday. The city has seen more than 560 cases of the virus.
Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, says St. Louis tracks closely with what they're seeing in Detroit, New York and Chicago.
Of the victims whose demographic data was publicly shared by officials — nearly 3,300 of the nation’s 13,000 deaths thus far — about 42% were black, according to an Associated Press analysis. African Americans account for roughly 21% of the total population in the areas covered by the analysis.
President Donald Trump and the government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, acknowledged the higher death rate among African Americans during Tuesday’s White House briefing. The president called it a “tremendous challenge,” and suggested that federal health officials could release national racial and ethnic COVID-19 data within days.
