HEALTH
Why are Latinx neighborhoods on the Southwest Side feeling the brunt of COVID-19 diagnoses in Chicago?
Hospital administrators share their views about healthcare in immigrant communities BY SUSY LIU
PHOTO COURTESY OF ESPERANZA HEALTH CENTERS
I
f you look at a map of confirmed coronavirus cases in Chicago, the Southwest Side is very clearly suffering. Neighborhoods such as Pilsen, Brighton Park, Little Village, and Back of the Yards are colored in a deep, dark blue—on the South Side, both case rates and number of confirmed cases are the highest in the city, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Many of these neighborhoods are over eighty percent “Hispanic,” following the national trend of hard-hit Latinx communities. Citywide, almost thirty-five percent of those who have tested positive are Latinx, the largest of any racial demographic. The South Side Weekly tracker, based on data from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, shows Little Village is the Latinx neighborhood with most COVID-19 deaths, and ranks third among all neighborhoods. ZIP code 60632, which covers the Brighton Park and Archer Heights area and is eightyeight percent “Hispanic,” has an overall positive test rate of thirty-seven percent, with sixty-five percent of those cases in the “Hispanic” demographic, according to IDPH. Nearby ZIP codes such as 60623 (which includes Little Village), 60629, and 60804 (in west suburban Cicero), have similar positive rates and numbers of confirmed cases and are found in majorityMexican areas. One predominantly Latinx zip code in the North Side, 60639, which covers Belmont-Cragin, is also dark blue on
the map. Meanwhile 60654, a ZIP code in the Loop, has a positive test rate of fourteen percent. For those who provide healthcare to Southwest Side communities, the data is not at all surprising—they have seen the same numbers before. Dr. Evelyn Figueroa—a professor of Clinical Family Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the executive director of the Pilsen Social Health Initiative, and the founder and director of the Pilsen Food Pantry— said, “You see the same map over and over again in Chicago. It’s the same infographic for food insecurity, allocations per child per school, violence—the South and West Side have the worst of whatever the condition is.” Health outcomes are often a result of structural social inequalities. As many Southwest Side residents are immigrants who may not speak English, they are more likely to have lower paying jobs and less likely to have health insurance. Chicago’s extensive history of redlining also limits access to health resources for Southwest Side residents. To reach Esperanza, the health center doing the majority of the Southwest Side’s coronavirus testing, half of the patients served at their Little Village location travel a short distance from south of the I-55 Stevenson Expressway. So although no one was prepared for the onslaught of COVID-19, the Southwest Side, long affected by poverty and well known as a ‘health desert,’ was even less so. MAY 27, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7
