NoVA's 'Islands Of Disadvantage' At Greatest Risk Of Coronavirus

NORTHERN VIRGINIA — Although everyone is potentially susceptible to the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, people of color and low-income families are especially vulnerable and have higher death rates from COVID-19, according to research commissioned by the Northern Virginia Health Foundation.

Research from the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, commissioned by the Northern Virginia Health Foundation, identified 15 “islands of disadvantage” where people face multiple serious challenges amid the Northern Virginia region’s more affluent communities.

These neighborhoods have low levels of education, high levels of economic distress, inadequate housing and transportation, and large numbers of residents without health insurance. Because of the combination of these existing factors, residents in these neighborhoods are now particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, according to the Northern Virginia Health Foundation.

Founded in 2004, the Northern Virginia Health Foundation is dedicated to improving the health and health care of residents of Northern Virginia, with a particular emphasis on the health needs of the uninsured.

"Northern Virginia’s affluence masks gaps in health and economic opportunity that have been exacerbated even further by the current coronavirus pandemic," Northern Virginia Health Foundation said in a news release.

The census tracts in Northern Virginia identified by VCU researchers as home to vulnerable populations include Alexandria West and Old Town in Alexandria; Columbia Pike, Douglas Park, Buckingham, Fort Myer and Arlandria in Arlington County; Herndon, Reston, Centreville, Chantilly, Fair Oaks, Springfield, Annandale, Landmark, Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads, Huntington, the Route 1 corridor, and Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County; Leesburg and Sterling Park in Loudoun County; and Bull Run, Manassas, Dale City, Woodbridge, and Dumfries in Prince William County.

The "islands of disadvantage" need to be at the forefront of fighting the coronavirus in Northern Virginia, Dr. Steven H. Woolf, a researcher and professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, said Tuesday during a teleconference with reporters sponsored by the Northern Virginia Health Foundation.

The island areas of Northern Virginia have larger concentrations of people of color and recent immigrants. Woolf and his fellow researchers also have studied census tracts in Northern Virginia and noted that the five census tracts in the region with the lowest life expectancy are 95-percent African American and the five census tracts with the highest life expectancy in Northern Virginia are 7-percent African American.

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Prince William County has the largest number of low-income communities in Northern Virginia where residents are the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. Even before the coronavirus crisis started, Dumfries and Woodbridge were the areas of Northern Virginia with the lowest life expectancies, according to Woolf.

In Prince William County, Latinos represent 24 percent of the population but 59 percent of the hospitalizations for COVID-19, he said. Not only are these people getting sick with the coronavirus at a higher rate due to the types of jobs they work, they are also facing "devastating wage losses," Woolf said.

Making the health of these marginalized communities a top priority is necessary to avoid community spread of the coronavirus, Woolf said during the coronavirus teleconference.

Contact tracing for people who are tested positive for the coronavirus should be done in Spanish in many of these communities. But Woolf said he is unaware of the state using Spanish speakers to conduct contact tracing.

Woolf also said his research shows there is a major under-counting of the number of deaths from COVID-19. The number of deaths from COVID-19 are likely 1.5 to 2 times the number of deaths reported by state health agencies, he said.

The Virginia Health Department on Tuesday reported 27 more coronavirus deaths and 1,002 new cases, bringing the state's death toll to 1,041 and the total number of cases to 32,145. Another 82 hospitalizations were reported since Monday, bringing the cumulative total to 3,904 hospitalizations.

Approximately 51 percent of the deaths in Virginia are occurring in Northern Virginia — Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Manassas and Manassas Park.

An important way to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Northern Virginia would be to expand access to testing sites in the so-called islands of disadvantage. These areas also would benefit from telehealth appointments with doctors. But many residents in these areas may not have access to doctors who conduct telehealth appointments or don't have access to the technology to participate in a telehealth appointment.

Woolf recently released a paper in which he outlined a plan for helping these islands of disadvantage. He cited work conducted by health justice experts Emily Benfer and Lindsay Wiley who outlined three priorities for helping low-income and marginalized communities make it through the stresses of the coronavirus crisis:

• Legal and policy responses should address the social determinants that can exacerbate the health, financial and social impacts of a public health emergency on low-income communities, communities of color, and other socially subordinated groups.
• Policies that mandate healthy behaviors — such as social distancing — must be accompanied by immediate legal, social, and financial protections and supports to facilitate those behaviors.
• Because emergencies typically exacerbate long-standing and interconnected crises in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, legal and policy responses must address deep-seated, longstanding problems in addition to immediate needs.

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