A brand-new, interactive map launched by Alameda County reveals the geographic spread of COVID-19 cases by zip code.
The brand-new addition to the county’s COVID-19 information control panel shows a small concentration of cases in one Berkeley postal code, but the total case number is too low to reason about rates of infection throughout the city.
The dataset reveals that 94703– which extends from the Oakland border to Hopkins Street, generally between Sacramento Street and Martin Luther King Jr.
The 94703 postal code also has the second-largest population of all Berkeley zip codes (20,294 residents), so the size might add to the relative prevalence in virus cases.
The data “does not actually state much,” stated city spokesperson Matthai Chakko.
While Berkeley reports geographic and market data to the county, the city itself has not released information on the place of any of its positive COVID-19 cases. Berkeley typically offers fewer details about its cases than surrounding jurisdictions do.
” We have to secure the personal privacy of individual individuals,” Chakko stated. “With little numbers, zip code information can be used with case counts to identify people.”
The city’s 2018 Health Status Report discovered big variations by zip code in lots of health results.
Across the country, black people are dying from the coronavirus at much higher rates than other groups too, and in San Francisco, Latinos have been overrepresented in validated infection cases.
” It’s not unexpected that we’re seeing reports of inequity in regards to testing, diagnosis and disparities in terms of who will pass away,” Sandra McCoy, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC Berkeley, just recently informed Berkeleyside. “We’re basically layering a pandemic on top of established inequities defined by race and socioeconomic status.”
There “are deep health injustices in Berkeley,” Chakko said.
He said the city’s Public Health Department is structured to deal with the systemic disparities with programs like Heart 2 Heart– a hypertension and cardiovascular disease program with LifeLong Treatment– particularly targeted at a little area of South Berkeley.
Berkeley’s coronavirus testing site, likewise a partnership with LifeLong, has “a specific goal of screening individuals without access to health care,” Chakko stated.
City Councilman Ben Bartlett, who represents a chunk of 94703, stated he was “sadly not shocked” to see that the zip code was the first to sign up in the database.
” Individuals in South Berkeley often have underlying health conditions, they’re poorer so they do not have the exact same access to good food and other wellness routines,” he stated. “They are the delivery drivers and the Uber drivers and the clerks who are working during this while our more wealthy next-door neighbors can work from home.”
Bartlett stated his workplace has been phoning constituents, distributing masks and working with churches to get in touch with congregants and make certain they’re not gathering face to face.
” Its motivating that they’re engaged with us but it’s unpleasant due to the fact that it’s safe to assume whatever injustices we had previously will end up being magnified,” he stated. “The worst part is the post-coronavirus collapse is likely going to remove the tenuous achievements we’ve made” in health and financial results.
Throughout the rest of Alameda County, several postal code in East Oakland have the highest rates of infection, according to the dataset.
