Missouri Health Director Directing Release of COVID-19 Racial Data

Missouri’s Health Director is asking medical professionals to provide racial data about patients who become ill or die from COVID-19 as some black lawmakers are raising concern about the lack of information.

Randall Williams said yesterday (Wednesday) the state has not released data about the race of people who test positive for the virus or who die from its complications, because 40 percent of medical providers have not been reporting that information.

Williams said a directive was sent out yesterday (Wednesday) to reinforce they do want that demographic, because they think it is really important.

According to data from the Associated Press of the nation’s 13 thousand deaths almost 3,300 or 42 percent were African Americans.