Special Series on Covid 19
RSPP Working Paper nº 2020.002
Socio-Demographic Disparities in COVID-19 Case Rates and Testing: An exploratory spatial analysis of ZIP code data in Chicago, IL [PDF]
By Kevin Credit
The recent release of ZIP code level data on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) provides an important opportunity to look at neighborhood-level socio-demographic and economic correlated of case and testing rates. This exploratory spatial analysis finds that black neighborhoods and those with older residents and higher proportions of employment in service occupations tend to have higher case rates (even when controlling for access to testing sites), while Hispanic neighborhoods have a lower than expected level of testing for COVID-19, even when controlling for the level of observed infection activity.