COVID-19 hitting Native Americans hard

A Native American advocacy group is calling for the state to include indigenous people in the racial breakdown of COVID-19 data

TONIGHT WE'RE HEARING THECONCERNS OF A GROUP THAT'SMISSING IN A LOT OF THEDATA....NATIVE AMERICANS.WMAR-2 NEWS RAY STRICKLANDEXPLAINS WHY THE GROUP SAYSNATIVE AMERICANS CANHELP THEY NEED WITHOUT ANOFFICIAL NUMBERS.The numbers show... Covid-i9is hitting communities ofcolor, especially hardAccording to the StateDepartment of Health, AfricansAmericans have the most casesin the state with more than26,000.

The Hispanic communityis next followed by WhiteAmericans.

But the next groupof cases don't include race.The patients under "data notavailable" and "other" make upmore than 18,000 COVID-19cases in Maryland.

2:23“Icannot tell you with anycertainly how COVID-19 isimpacting my community, thereason is that our data is notcounted” Kerry Hawk Lassardis the executive director ofNative American Life Lines.Itand service provider servingmore than a thousand nativeamericans in the Baltimoreregion.

She believes a goodnumber of those cases couldpotentially be americanindians and alaskan natives.15 10“I would like to knowwho they are becauseI knowpeople in my community whohave been tested, i knowpeople in our tribal communitywho have passed away becauseof COVID-19 and itreported anywhere”Hawk-Lassard says Maryland ishome to more than 17,000native americans as well asseveral tribes.

Many of themdealing with issues wellbefore the pandemic 21 55“Ourcommunities have higherpoverty, less employment, lesseducation attainment, againhigh density housing.

Thoseissues, those public healthissues are serious” Thoseproblems are now even moreserious because of theCoronavirus.

Which is why shesays including them in theracial breakdown of virus datais crucial.

Itlike hers can give nativeamericans the help they'vedesperately needed for months18 40information, itjust about money, its makingsure if people are sufferingfrom this condition lets getthe resources where its neededif we donget the resources where theyneed to be.

IN DOWNTOWNBALTIMORE, RAY STRICKLAND,WMAR2 NEWS.MARYLANREQUIREMENTS GO INTO E