John Locher / AP
Hotel room lights spell out “Vegas Strong” at the Wynn hotel-casino along the Las Vegas Strip as casinos and other business are shuttered due to the coronavirus outbreak Wednesday, April 1, 2020, in Las Vegas.
Friday, April 17, 2020 | 10:22 a.m.
Of the 124 people in Clark County who have died of complications related to COVID-19, 20 were black and 20 were Asian. That amounts to 16.13% of all deaths for each of the two demographic groups.
In Clark County, black residents make up 12.21% of the population, while Asians make up 10.51% of the population, according to Healthy Southern Nevada.
Nationwide, blacks have been dying of COVID-19 at a higher rate than other racial groups. Some experts suspect that racial health disparities could be at play. Blacks, in relation to whites, are more likely to live in neighborhoods that lack healthy food options and that have worse access to health care, Rashawn Ray, associate professor sociology at University of Maryland, writes for the Brookings Institution.
There does not appear to be data suggesting a nationwide trend of Asians or Asian Americans similarly dying of COVID-19 at higher rates than whites.
The Health District data released Friday is the most comprehensive demographic information yet on local coronavirus patients who have died. The Health District had previously only made public the approximate ages of patients who died and whether they suffered from underlying health conditions.
Aside from blacks and Asians, whites in Clark County made up 41.13% of deaths, Hispanics made up 15.32% of deaths, and Pacific Islanders and other races each made up 3.23% of deaths, the data shows. No American Indian/Native Alaskan patients have died from the disease, and the races/ethnicities of six patients who died – 4.84% of deaths – are currently unknown to the Health District.
When it comes to Clark County’s infection rate, black and Asian residents do not appear to be contracting the disease at disproportionately high rates. However, the races/ethnicities of 36.71% of the county’s 2,738 COVID-19 patients are unknown as of Friday. That’s because the Health District faces limited staff and resources to obtain the data, officials say.
For those patients whose races/ethnicities are known, blacks make up 10.77% of COVID-19 cases, Asians make up 6.83% of cases, whites represent 21.69% of cases, Hispanics represent 17.6% of cases, Pacific Islanders represent 1.79% of cases, American Indians/Alaska Natives represent .22% of all cases, and people of other races make up 3.98% of cases.
Aligning with national trends, men in Clark County appear to be dying more frequently than women. As of Friday, 63.71% of patients who died were men.
People with underlying health conditions are also getting hit harder than others. A total of 64.52% of the patients who died had pre-existing conditions, most commonly hypertension, followed by diabetes.
Although people of all ages have been contracting the disease, most who have died have been older. A total of 78.23% of deaths were patients over 65-years-old, 13.71% were between 50 and 64, 7.26% were between 25 and 49, and one patient who died was between 18 and 24 years old. No patients under 18 have died from the disease.
