By Miriam Raftery

April 7, 2020 (San Diego) – Following news reports this about high rates of COVID-19 cases among African-Americans in Chicago, civil rights activists have called on the U.S., cities and counties to release racial data on coronavirus cases. Yesterday, San Diego County health official released available data, which indicates that of the 71% of cases for which racial data was reported, the breakdown is consistent with the County's racial and ethnic demographics.

Of 1,404 confirmed case to date, 405 (29%) did not include an ethnic background.

Of the 999 (71%) of cases that did report ethnic background, 49% are white, 31% Hispanic,10% Asian, 6% African American, and 4% other. 

That tracks closely to the county’s ethnic composition based on the last census, which reported 45% white, 34% Hispanic or Latino, 12% Asian, 5% African-American, with the remainder multiple races or other ethnicities.