Health equity is a cornerstone of public health. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic when many populations are suffering from both the health and economic consequences of the disease. Accurate information on disparities in disease incidence, outcomes, and social and economic impacts is necessary to guide and develop an appropriate response. Efforts to study these disparities have been hampered by missing data. Almost a quarter of confirmed cases are missing race and ethnicity data. Accounting for this missing data is essential to understanding COVID-19 and to facilitate research into health disparities.
This post provides an update to imputed case data initially published in August 2020. This data is intended for research purposes and to assist understanding of COVID-19-related health disparities. The COVID-19 Daily Dashboard will continue to report the unimputed data, including the number of cases with race and ethnicity not reported. Virginia Department of Health Surveillance and Investigations staff continue to pursue multiple strategies to fill in missing data.