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When the coronavirus emerged in the U.S. this year, public health officials and advocates for the homeless feared the virus would rip through shelters and tent encampments, ravaging vulnerable people who often have chronic health issues. They scrambled to move people into hotel rooms, thinned out crowded shelters and moved tents into designated spots at sanctioned outdoor camps. (Har, 8/16)

The number of Americans who say they can’t afford enough food for themselves or their children is growing, according to Census data, and it is likely to get larger now that some government benefits have expired. As of late last month, about 12.1% of adults lived in households that didn’t have enough to eat at some point in the previous week, up from 9.8% in early May, Census figures show. And almost 20% of Americans with kids at home couldn’t afford to give their children enough food, up from almost 17% in early June. (Harrison, 8/16)

Some want direct government aid. Others want tax breaks. Many want protection against lawsuits. Nursing homes have been the center of America’s coronavirus pandemic, with more than 62,000 residents and staff dying from Covid-19 at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, about 40 percent of the country’s virus fatalities. Now the lightly regulated industry is campaigning in Washington for federal help that could increase its profits. (Silver-Greenberg and Drucker, 8/16)

Three years ago, Cathy Baum helped both her mother and her mother-in-law move into memory care in an assisted living facility in Reston, Va. Because Ms. Baum lived nearby, she could visit four to five days a week and keep a watchful eye on them. “I’d check the bathrooms to be sure they’d had a shower when they were supposed to,” said Ms. Baum, 69. She stuck around at lunchtime to help cut their food or see that a staff member did. She made sure that her mother-in-law got the right clothing back from the laundry. (Span, 8/14)

A high percentage of COVID-19 cases in hot spots are among people of color, particularly Hispanic and Black residents, according to a new analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among 79 counties identified as COVID-19 hot spots, 76 had a disproportionate number of cases among communities of color between February and June, according to the data released Friday.The CDC said that another 126 counties were also considered hot spots, but those did not have enough racial data of COVID-19 cases to include in the analysis. (Hellmann, 8/14)

Such proximity is thought to be a key reason behind the coronavirus’ disproportionate toll on Black people in Louisiana and across the U.S. Here, nearly half of those killed by the virus to date have been African American, though Black people make up just under a third of Louisiana’s population. Though the reasons may be many-layered, it’s become clear that in Louisiana and in other Gulf Coast states, the wide gap in death rates can be largely attributed to the fact that Black people have gotten sick with COVID-19 at far higher rates than White people. (Reckdahl, 8/15)

Race has played a prominent role in the history of Sumter County, which is currently just over half African American. The county serves international visitors to President Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains, the Andersonville Civil War prison site and the historic racially integrated Koinonia Farm. But it’s also just another Southern community that was divided during the civil rights movement and lives with racial divisions now. (Hart and Redmon, 8/14)

The exclusion of gender-affirming healthcare in Yellowstone County's insurance plan was ruled as discrimination by the Montana Human Rights Bureau Friday. The decision, in which the Department of Labor and Industry's Office of Administrative Hearings cited the Montana Human Rights Act, marks first time that a Montana office has affirmed transgender and non-binary individuals as a protected class. (Hamby, 8/14)