ABC7 article and video by Liz Kreutz and Silvio Carrillo
Across the country, communities of color are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. In California, Latinos make up more than 50% of COVID-19 cases. But in the Bay Area, specifically Marin County, the disparity is worse.
Latinos make up 16% of Marin County’s population, yet currently account for nearly 80% of the county’s coronavirus cases. It’s the largest racial disparity of any county in the Bay Area, and part of the reason the county has landed on the state’s watch list.
Another factor is the outbreak at San Quentin State Prison, but take those numbers out of the equation and more than half of all the cases in the county are concentrated in one, 2.5 square mile neighborhood in San Rafael known as the Canal.
Nestled between some of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, the Canal looks and feels a lot different than much of its neighboring communities. It’s 80% Latino and largely low-income. This isn’t where the multi-million dollar mansions are, rather the densely crowded apartments of the county’s essential workers.
