Why Black Americans are being hit especially hard by Covid-19?

Figures from several U.S. states and cities show a disturbing trend: The coronavirus is disproportionately infecting and killing black people.

In Louisiana, about 70 percent of the people who have died are African-American, though only one-third of the state’s population is black. Around Milwaukee, where 27 percent of residents are black, African-Americans who test positive outnumber whites two to one. Chicago is a bit less than one-third African-American, but black people account for 72 percent of the virus-linked deaths.

There’s no reason to think the virus discriminates. Rather, the racial disparities in who is getting sick and dying reflect entrenched inequalities in American society.

African-Americans are less likely to be insured, more likely to have existing health conditions and more likely to be denied testing and treatment than people of other races, public health experts say.

Black Americans are more likely to use public transportation, live in rented housing and hold jobs that can’t be done from home — all pointing to more frequent contact with strangers, and therefore more risk of infection.

“If you walk outside and see who is actually still working,” said Elaine Nsoesie of Boston University’s School of Public Health, “the data don’t seem surprising.”

Put at risk by policy: Our colleague Nikole Hannah-Jones, who writes about race for The Times Magazine, notes in an extensive Twitter thread that many of the states with the largest shares of black residents — those in the Deep South — also refused to expand Medicaid.

And they have been slow to order social distancing measures: South Carolina’s statewide order, one of the least restrictive, takes effect Tuesday evening; those in Alabama, Georgia and Florida have been in place only a few days.

Hot spots today

• After hints of a slowdown, New York State recorded 731 deaths on Tuesday, the most in one day since the crisis began.
• France had its highest daily death toll yet on Monday, with 613 fatalities reported in hospitals.
• Japan declared a state of emergency after months of resisting stringent measures. Medical experts wondered whether it was too little, too late.

  After a sharp uptick in infections, Turkey, which has more than 30,000 cases, said it would begin delivering free masks to families.