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On March 1, there were 88 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States. By month’s end, there were more than 170,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has compiled data on people who were hospitalized from the virus during that month to get a clearer demographic picture of infected patients who have required the most serious medical care. Approximately 90 percent of the 1,482 hospitalized patients included in the study released Wednesday had one or more underlying medical conditions. (Waldstein, 4/8)

The White House coronavirus task force is seeking to get ahead of the growing debate over how it's responding to racial disparities in coronavirus deaths -- particularly the much higher numbers and percentages in black communities compared to states as a whole. The disturbing development in the crisis has become more apparent -- and controversial -- as states and cities begin to release data showing deaths by race -- data that has continuously been requested on a national scale from members of Congress, leaders in the black community and members of the press. (Haslett, 4/8)

Late last month, Vice President Mike Pence sent a letter to administrators of the nation’s 6,000 hospitals requesting a favor. He asked them to complete a form each day with data on the patients they are treating with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and submit it to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The data will help us better understand disease patterns and develop policies for prevention and control of health problems related to COVID-19,” Pence wrote. (Ornstein, 4/9)

As the coronavirus tightens its grip across the country, it is cutting a particularly devastating swath through an already vulnerable population — black Americans. Democratic lawmakers and community leaders in cities hard-hit by the pandemic have been sounding the alarm over what they see as a disturbing trend of the virus killing African Americans at a higher rate, along with a lack of overall information about the race of victims as the nation’s death toll mounts. (Stafford, Hoyer and Morrison, 4/9)

The coronavirus is killing black and Latino people in New York City at twice the rate that it is killing white people, according to preliminary data released on Wednesday by the city. The disparity reflected longstanding and persistent economic inequalities and differences in access to health care, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday morning. “There are clear inequalities, clear disparities in how this disease is affecting the people of our city,” Mr. de Blasio said. “The truth is that in so many ways the negative effects of coronavirus — the pain it’s causing, the death it’s causing — tracks with other profound health care disparities that we have seen for years and decades.” (Mays and Newman, 4/8)

"We don't think African Americans are more susceptible to getting infected," Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said Wednesday on NBC's "TODAY" show. But she said her group was "very concerned" when it became clear that pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and asthma were associated with worse outcomes of the coronavirus. Those underlying conditions tend to be more prevalent in communities of color, a finding that's been well documented in recent years.(Edwards, 4/8)

Findings were based on a review of 1,482 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States in March, the report said. Cases were tracked though the COVID-NET tracing system that’s active in 99 counties in 14 states including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah, the report said. (Andersen, 4/8)

A disproportionate number of African Americans are suffering the worst consequences of the new coronavirus in Houston, the city’s top doctor said Wednesday, though the details remain hazy as local officials have yet to release a breakdown of cases by race and ethnicity. In response Wednesday to questions from City Councilwoman Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Houston Health Authority David Persse said COVID-19 has had an acute impact on black Houstonians because of “social disparities” in health care and their high rates of chronic illnesses, which typically worsen the effect of the disease. (Scherer, Despart and Morris, 4/8)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Wednesday vowed to ramp up coronavirus testing in minority communities and investigate the racial disparities in deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. “Why are more African Americans and Latinos affected?” Cuomo asked at his daily press briefing Wednesday. He noted that black New Yorkers comprise 28 percent of deaths in New York City and 18 percent of deaths in New York state, despite being 22 percent and 9 percent of the population, respectively. (Budryk, 4/8)

In New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., no ethnic group has been harder hit by the deadly disease it causes than the Latinx community. Mayor Bill de Blasio laid out the preliminary data during a briefing Wednesday, offering one of the first detailed glimpses yet into the breakdown of patients' race and ethnicity. (Dwyer, 4/8)

Preliminary data released this week by Los Angeles County appeared to offer a glimmer of hope for the county’s largest ethnic group: Latinos, who make up nearly half the county’s population, represent just over a quarter of its coronavirus deaths. But experts warn that the early, and incomplete, information may paint a murkier picture. (Mason, 4/8)

For the very young — people under the age of 20 — death is extremely rare in the current pandemic. But it happens: The Post identified nine such cases. The risk appears to rise with every decade of age. The Post found at least 45 deaths among people in their 20s, at least 190 deaths among people in their 30s, and at least 413 deaths among people in their 40s. Determining a precise number for each category is difficult because of the divergent ways states present age groups. But The Post found at least 102 other deaths that occurred among people younger than 50. (Mooney, Deenis and Kaplan, 4/8)