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As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the United States, it appears to be infecting and killing black Americans at a disproportionately high rate, according to a Washington Post analysis of early data from jurisdictions across the country. The emerging stark racial disparity led the surgeon general Tuesday to acknowledge in personal terms the increased risk for African Americans amid growing demands that public-health officials release more data on the race of those who are sick, hospitalized and dying of a contagion that has killed more than 12,000 people in the United States. (Thebault, Tran and Williams, 4/7)

“This is a call-to-action moment for all of us,” said Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, who announced statistics of the outbreak in her city this week. African-Americans account for more than half of those who have tested positive and 72 percent of virus-related fatalities in Chicago, even though they make up a little less than a third of the population. “Those numbers take your breath away, they really do,” said Ms. Lightfoot, who is the city’s first black woman elected as mayor. She added in an interview that the statistics were “among the most shocking things I think I’ve seen as mayor.” (Eligon, Burch, Searcey and Oppel, 4/7)

A combination of structural factors means that black people are getting infected more and dying more of coronavirus, said Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, a family physician and epidemiologist. "What's happening is black folks are getting infected more because they are exposed more, and once infected they're dying more because they have their bodies -- our bodies -- have born the burden of chronic disinvestment (and) active neglect of the community," she said. "When I look at it is because of structural racism, which puts us in the forward facing jobs so that we are exposed and less valued and don't have the protection that we need." (Levenson, 4/7)

In Michigan, black people have died at more than eight times the rate of white people. In Illinois, they have died at nearly six times the rate. In Louisiana, the difference is fivefold. Public health experts said those figures reflected deep-rooted social and economic inequalities. Not only are black Americans less likely to be insured and able to afford testing, but they are more likely to have underlying medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease that could put them at higher risk for severe illness. (Jarvie and Hennessy-Fiske, 4/7)

The state’s two largest community health centers, in East Boston and Lawrence, have encountered a disproportionately large surge of coronavirus cases among Spanish-speakers. Among COIVD-19 patients at Massachusetts General Hospital are four times more Latinos than are typically patients at the hospital. Boston has what appear to be high concentrations of infection in neighborhoods home to large Black, Latino, and immigrant communities in Hyde Park, Mattapan, and East Boston. (Ryan and Lazar, 4/7)

Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert on infectious diseases, both took the podium to address the disproportionate number of deaths in black communities, which Trump called "terrible" and a "tremendous challenge." "We have a difficult problem of exacerbation of a health disparity. We have known literally forever that diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and asthma are disproportionately afflicting the minority populations, particularly the African-American," Fauci said, adding that those are the same conditions that "lead to a bad outcome with the coronavirus." (Phelps, Cathey and Haslett, 4/7)

The recommendation from the White House that Americans wear cloth face coverings is causing concerns among those who fear that doing so could expose some people of color to other kinds of threats. On the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, the government provides information on how to wear face coverings. (Scott, 4/7)

Rep. Ayanna Pressley is leading a call by the Congressional Black Caucus demanding the next coronavirus relief package require federal authorities to collect and report race-specific data. Pressley told WBUR that she and Rep. Robin Kelly, of Illinois, made the ask in a letter to Democratic leadership Tuesday. (Atkins, 4/7)