In a new analysis of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, test results for nearly 38,000 people has found a positivity rate among Latinx populations about three times higher than for any other racial and ethnic group. The findings, published June 18 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), adds to evidence of much higher COVID-19 infection rates among U.S. minorities, particularly in the Latinx community. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Data Science in Emergency Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases collaborated on the study.

Out of 37,727 adults and children tested between March 11 and May 25 across five Johns Hopkins Health System hospitals, including emergency departments, and 30 outpatient clinics in the Baltimore-Washington area, 6,162 tests came back positive. Of those tests, the positivity rate for Latinx was 42.6%, significantly higher than those who identified as Black (17.6%), Other (17.2%) or white (8.8%).

Among those who tested positive, 2,212 were admitted to a Johns Hopkins Health System hospital. The study data show that Latinx patients were less likely to be admitted to the hospital (29.1%), compared with Black (41.7%) and white (40.1%) patients.

Researchers Diego Martinez, Ph.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Kathleen R. Page, M.D., associate professor of medicine at JHUSOM, and a study member, hypothesize that crowded living conditions, lack of health insurance, fear of deportation and need to work in conditions more likely to expose them to infection all contributed to the higher rate of positive tests.

Martinez and Page are available for media interviews.

For information from Johns Hopkins Medicine about the coronavirus pandemic, visit hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus. For information on the coronavirus from throughout the Johns Hopkins enterprise, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Johns Hopkins University, visit coronavirus.jhu.edu