Bethany Bump is reporting for the Times Union Albany County officials May 4, released new fatality and hospitalization data that confirmed what many already suspected: COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on the county's black residents. While black people make up 11.4 percent of the county's population, they are being hospitalized and landing in intensive care at higher rates than their white counterparts, who make up 71.6 percent of the population. As of Sun., May 3, 26.1 percent of the 180 county residents who had been hospitalized with the novel coronavirus were black, while 57.6 percent were white. Among the Albany County residents in intensive care units, 30.2 percent were black compared to 56.6 percent who were white. "What we are seeing in the county, we are seeing across the country — that there is a disproportionate burden of illness on our communities of color," County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen. "This is something that we continue to watch and continue to urge those that live in these communities of the importance of trying to contain the illness via the strategies of social distancing and wearing a mask while in public." According to data maintained by the state Department of Health, outside of New York City, black people make up 9 percent of the state's population, but 18 percent of deaths due to coronavirus. White people outside the city make up 74 percent of the population, but 60 percent of deaths. Researchers are studying the disparities, but believe the same structural inequalities that cause other health disparities are responsible. People of color are also disproportionately employed in essential service jobs that require interactions with the public, as well as positions where maintaining social distance may prove difficult, such as in jails, prisons and homeless shelters. Read the full story in the Times Union.