This is one frightening statistic: COVID-19 has killed more Detroiters than homicides have in the past two years combined. And the pandemic is not yet over.
Detroit regularly has one of the highest murder rates in the country, and now coronavirus has become the main cause of death in the city.
Wayne Country, where Detroit is located, has had 15,748 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Deaths have topped 1,580. According to police records, a total of 534 people were murdered in the past two years– 261 in 2018 and 273 in 2019, to be exact.
Michigan continues to remain in the top five for worst COVID outbreaks in the country with Detroit the hardest-hit area in the state.
Most recent data shows Detroit’s cases make up 25 percent of the entire state’s and Detroiters account for 25 percent of the deaths, too, Fox 2 Detroit reported.
As the stats have shown in other cities nationwide, African Americans are disproportionately affected. African Americans make up 33 percent of all cases in Michigan and 41 percent of all deaths, despite making up only 14 percent of the state’s total population.
Getting tested is still a major challenge for many in Detroit, especially for those in Black communities.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.
“So what you’re seeing,” the state’s medical director Dr. Joneigh S. Khaldun explained, “is when you have, really, generations of concentrated poverty and what we call those ‘social determinants of health’ that impact a city like Detroit, when you have pandemics like this it’s going to hit those places harder.”
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist has organized a task force to investigate the reasons behind the widening gap.
The state has also been tracking the hot spots. Michigan’s nursing homes have reported nearly 2,200 COVID-19 cases and of those Metro Detroit accounted for 72 percent of all cases, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Detroit News reported.
