72% of households have suffered serious financial problems.
In June, the distancing disappeared when small businesses opened in California.
Photo: Ana Milena Varón / EFE
72% of Latinos have experienced “serious financial problems” at home during the coronavirus pandemic, a higher percentage than other groups, showed a national survey presented a few days ago.
The survey “The impact of the coronavirus in households by race / ethnicity”, conducted by National Public Radio (NPR) in conjunction with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, found that Latinos had the highest percentage high of serious economic problems caused by COVID-19.
In comparison, 60% of African-Americans, 37% of Asians, and 36% of non-Hispanic whites say they have suffered serious financial problems at home from the pandemic.
Correlatively, these financial difficulties of Latinos have had an impact on essential issues such as daily food, the purchase of supplies and the payment of housing or medical insurance, among others.
Thirty-two percent of Latino families faced severe difficulties paying rent or mortgages, compared to African Americans (28%), non-Hispanic whites (15%), and Asians (13%).
Latino households were also the most affected with serious child care problems (66%), more than African Americans (59%), non-Hispanic whites (57%) and Asians (27%).
On the other hand, 63% of Latinos reported loss of family income either due to reduced hours or wages, or temporary suspensions or permanent lack of jobs, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last March.
“When it comes to employment, more than 6 out of 10 Latino households reported that one of their adult members lost their job, was suspended or suffered a reduction in wages or hours since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak,” the report highlighted.
The emergency has consumed available savings – few in many cases for Latino families – creating a serious lack of resources to sustain daily life.
“These results show that racial / ethnic minority households may have limited financial resources to cope with the long-term health and economic effects of the pandemic,” the report noted.
Thus, 46% of these Hispanic households reported having used most or all of their available savings and 25% indicated that they had “serious problems” to pay the cost of medical services due to an outbreak of COVID-19.
Similarly, 20% of Latino households reported that someone in the family was unable to obtain medical care for a serious problem when needed during the pandemic.
As a result of not being able to afford medical care, 47% of these Latino households reported negative health consequences.
The survey was conducted between July 1 and August 3 among 3,454 adults in English or Spanish and presents a margin of error of 3.3%.
