State data show more Latinos died from COVID-19 than anything else in Idaho last year
The coronavirus took the lives of many Idahoans last year, but data show it was particularly deadly for the state’s Latinos.
COVID-19 was the top cause of death for Hispanics or Latinos in Idaho in 2020, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, with data showing it as the underlying cause in at least 141 deaths, surpassing the number of Hispanics who died from malignant neoplasms (cancer), heart disease or accidents.
About 13% of Idahoans identify as Hispanic or Latino.
The state’s Latino communities suffered disproportionately from the effects of the coronavirus for much of the pandemic, testing positive at higher rates than white Idahoans for several months at a time before stabilizing. Much of COVID-19’s spread through Hispanic and Latino communities came amid large outbreaks at food processing and meatpacking plants in rural areas. Plus, there was limited or slow Spanish-language outreach efforts about the virus.
Across the country, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated in June 2021 showed that compared to their white peers, Latinos were twice as likely to contract COVID-19, 2.8 times as likely to be hospitalized and 2.3 times as likely to die. Race and ethnicity information is available for only 61% of cases nationwide — similar to Idaho — so the figures still are not a complete picture.
Although they contracted COVID-19 disproportionately, state data does not show Idaho Latinos died in disproportionate numbers like others across the country. Instead, they comprise just 10% of the deaths where the underlying cause of death was COVID-19. The underlying cause of death was COVID-19 for 1,212 non-Hispanic Idahoans in 2020.
Overall, COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death for all Idahoans in 2020, with heart disease and cancer causing more deaths. That held true for every other racial and ethnic group in Idaho — except the Hispanic/Latino population.
The total number of Idaho Latinos who died in 2020 was much higher than usual, too. The overall death toll jumped 27% from 2019 to 2020. From 2017 to 2019, state data show an average of 520 Latinos have died every year from a variety of causes. In 2020, the state recorded the deaths of 732.
The 2020 data also include 87 total deaths with “other race” reported, five with multiple races reported and 25 with race not reported. Of all of these, 18 were the result of contracting COVID-19.
There were also 26 deaths in 2020 where ethnicity was not reported, and two of those were COVID-19 deaths. Death certificates — especially those from December — might still be coming into the state’s vital-records system, so the data are still considered preliminary.
But in 2020, COVID-19 was responsible for 19% of the deaths reported among Hispanic Idahoans.
The data from the Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics considered virus deaths to be those in which the underlying cause was COVID-19. Deaths recorded on the “underlying cause” method are a smaller subset of the statistics shown on Idaho’s coronavirus website and therefore don’t match all mortality counts there.
The state’s coronavirus website counted COVID-19-related deaths, meaning the disease contributed to the fatality. As of June 28, the state website showed 209 Hispanic deaths so far in the pandemic. The state site still was not showing the ethnicity of three people who died.
A spike last summer and a deadly aftermath
The state health department recorded the deaths of only a few Hispanic Idahoans in the first few months of the pandemic, including a pair of grandparents in Canyon County. But last July, the number of Hispanic and Latino residents dying from COVID-19 jumped suddenly — especially considering the community’s small population — and didn’t really recede. At least 15 Latinos died in July, then 24 in August, 12 in September and 22 in October.
Throughout the late summer and fall, Latinos were testing positive at high rates in cities across Canyon County, which has the largest number of Latinos in the state. In October, Dr. Richard Augustus, chief medical officer of West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell, told the Idaho Statesman that a disproportionate share of their COVID-19 patients were Latino, as well as a high number of their sickest patients filling the intensive care unit.
Sometimes, the hospital treated several members of the same family at once, Augustus told the Statesman. Former Wilder City Council member Guadalupe “Lupe” Garcia died from COVID-19 on Aug. 20 in West Valley, as did 53-year-old Rose Ann Spath on Nov. 20. She and her pregnant daughter, who recovered, were hospitalized with COVID-19 complications around the time.
Many Idaho counties with the largest Latino communities never implemented mask mandates or more significant coronavirus prevention measures. In August, board members of Southwest District Health, which covers Canyon County, purported that well-documented national and local trends of COVID-19 hitting those communities harder was because of presumed low Vitamin D levels associated with communities of color. (Hispanics and Latinos are not monolithic and not all have the same skin color or Vitamin D levels.)
South Central Public Health District board members, who oversee several counties with large Latino communities in the Wood River Valley and the agricultural Magic Valley, voted against a mask mandate in October and again in November after hundreds spoke and protested against it at meetings in Twin Falls. Very few, if any, of those vocal detractors were Hispanic. None of the board members were Latino.
The number of Hispanic deaths rose again at the end of 2020, as hospitals across Idaho were strained to dangerous levels and health professionals pleaded with the public to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid holiday gatherings. The state recorded the COVID-19 deaths of 26 Hispanic Idahoans in November and 34 in December — the highest of any month in 2020.
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
