COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Social Vulnerability in Chicago Community Areas

OBJECTIVES: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a disproportionate impact on communities across the nation, driven, in part, by disparities in access to testing, treatment, and vaccines. The City of Chicago (Illinois, USA) has notable differences across communities in social vulnerability, attributed to social inequity, economic disadvantage, racial discrimination, and spatial exclusion, allowing for an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 by social vulnerability. This analysis examined the association between social vulnerability and COVID-19 cases and deaths across Chicago zip-codes.

METHODS: Using publicly available data from the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) from July 2020 to March 2024, we examined COVID-19 and social vulnerability by zip-code. Chicago-specific cases and deaths were reported weekly by zip-code. Social vulnerability was defined by the Chicago COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index (CCVI), which incorporates COVID-19-specific sociodemographic, epidemiological, and occupational factors influencing vulnerability of a community by zip-code. Case rates, death rates, and vaccine rates across zip-codes with the highest and lowest CCVI values were calculated by year. The rate of deaths per case occurring by zip-code was also calculated for the highest and lowest CCVI communities.

RESULTS: There were 121,500 COVID-19 cases and 1,340 COVID-19 related deaths reported in the CDPH database. In 2020, the zip-codes with the highest CCVI values had higher case rates, but in 2021-2024, the communities with the lowest CCVI values had higher rates of COVID-19 cases. Death rates were higher among zip-codes with the highest CCVI values across all years. Death rates per documented COVID-19 cases were higher among the zip-codes with the highest CCVI values across all years.

CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 death rates, though not always case rates, were higher among communities with higher social vulnerability in Chicago. These findings suggest that communities with increased social vulnerability faced disproportionate barriers in accessing treatment after testing positive for COVID-19.