New study reports Black Americans more prone to Covid-19

Black Americans are more prone to be diagnosed with and die from COVID-19 because they hold a high percentage of the jobs considered essential during the pandemic. 

That's the finding from a new University of Utah study published in World Medical & Health Policy. 

Researchers used population data from the Census Bureau's 2018 American Community Survey and matched it against COVID-19 deaths from state health departments across the U.S. 

The study found that nearly 20-percent of the deaths from the virus were in the Black community, even though they make up just 12-percent of the population of the states studied. 

Researchers concluded that a key reason the death rate was higher is because of the higher number of Black workers in key occupations such as transportation and healthcare that were considered essential during the pandemic.