Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WRKF/WWNO Newsroom.

70 Percent Dead Of COVID-19 In Louisiana Were Black, 66 Percent Had Hypertension, New Data Shows

Travis Lux
/
WWNO

The Louisiana Department of Health released new information on race, ethnicity and underlying conditions of those who have died of COVID-19.

That includes two big pieces of information mentioned by Gov. John Bel Edwards at his press conference yesterday: 70.48 percent of those who have died of COVID-19 so far in Louisiana were black and 66.4 percent had hypertension. 

Previously, the most prevelant underlying condition was given as diabetes — present in 40 percent of the dead.

Here's the full breakdown of race:

Black: 70.48 percent

White:28.61 percent

Asian: .9 percent

Ethnicity: 

Non-Hispanic/Latino: 98 percent

Hispanic/Latino:2 percent

Underlying conditions:

Hypertension:66.4 percent

Diabetes:43.52 percent

Chronic kidney disease:25.1 percent

Obesity: 24.7 percent

Cardiac disease:22.67 percent

Pulmonary:13.97 percent

Congestive heart failure: 11.54 percent

Neurological:10.93 percent

Cancer: 9.92 percent

Asthma:4.66 percent

This information will be updated weekly, according to the state.

Copyright 2021 WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio. To see more, visit .

Ashley Dean is the digital news editor for New Orleans Public Radio. Before coming to New Orleans, she was the editor of Denverite, a digital news startup now under the Colorado Public Radio umbrella. Prior to that she was a copy editor and features writer at the Denver Post, and before that, a music reporter for the Colorado Daily. She graduated from Columbia University with a master's degree in journalism and from Northeastern University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.