According to the University of California research, Irvine, socioeconomic, regional, and demographic variables all had important roles in the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 death among Orange County residents last year.
The results, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, indicate that some groups were more likely to test positive for the virus and die because of it.
COVID-19 : Infection and Death Rates Among Orange County Inhabitants Vary
Daniel Parker, University of California, Irvine Assistant Professor of Public Health and Study Corresponding Author. For the first six months of the pandemic, from March 1 to August 16, testing and death data were obtained from the Orange County Health Care Agency, and a serological survey was performed from July 10 to August 16. UCI and OCHCA gathered seroprevalence data from 11 drive-through locations, suggesting a history of viral exposure.
The researchers examined age, ethnicity, and gender, as well as socioeconomic factors such as income, education, insurance coverage, and home crowding at the ZIP code level.
COVID-19 was more likely to be diagnosed in older age groups, men, and Hispanic or Latino people. Asians were more likely to die than non-Hispanic whites among individuals who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. People living in ZIP codes with greater household density, less education, and less insurance coverage were more likely to get infected and die, whereas those with lower incomes were more likely to be seropositive.
According to Parker, race and ethnicity categories such as Hispanic or Latino and Asian are too wide; therefore, it would be very helpful to have precise information in the future. The local Asian community is very varied, and lumping them into a single group likely obscures any significant infection or mortality risk variations across various Asian communities.
The discovery that even after controlling for several socioeconomic factors, such as living in a ZIP code with high transmission rates or one with low incomes and levels of education, Hispanic and Latino individuals had 1.7 times the odds of testing positive for infection than non-Hispanic whites was particularly significant.
The majority of the globe is coping with this pandemic caused by a new virus in humans. On the other hand, a pandemic is made up of numerous local epidemics, each of which plays out according to local contextual variables. COVID-19 has swept across Orange County differently
