Coronavirus Latest: Gov. Hogan Directs Maryland Health Department To Provide Demographic, Racial Breakdowns Of COVID-19 Case Data
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Beginning this week, the state will publish everything available to them on racial and ethnic breakdowns of COVID-19 cases.
Gov. Larry Hogan directed the Maryland Department of Health to immediately take all actions necessary in order to provide further demographic breakdowns on race, of all Maryland case data including testing, hospitalizations and mortality rates.
He also directed them to publish everything that is available to the state, with respect to racial and ethnic demographic breakdowns on cases, with instructions to update as new data becomes available.
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Gov. Hogan warned that the state may see some significant gaps in the data that's available, due to much of the testing being done through private labs.
He said 90 percent of testing is done by doctors and hospitals who are sending their tests to these private labs sometimes out of state.
Del. Nick Mosby and other state legislators had called the governor to do this earlier this week, backed up by Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott in a press conference Tuesday morning.
In a statement Tuesday evening, Mosby called Hogan's announcement a step in the right direction but not far enough:
"I want to thank Governor Hogan for his prompt response to my letter from yesterday. His decision to release data, specific to race/ethnicity, is a step in the right direction. However, without zip code or geographical grouping data, state and local agencies can not target communities with the greatest needs for distribution and deployment of limited resources when combating COVID-19.
"Access to disaggregated data, specifically to race/ethnicity and zip code, is critically important and hopefully will force uniformity of collection of data and development of equitable engagement, testing, and treatment solutions.
"This would put our state in a strong position to competently serve each community and every citizen consistent with the values that make Maryland such a special place to call home."
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.