Massachusetts is one of just four states in the country that has vaccinated at least 15 percent of its Black population, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The Bay State, which has vaccinated 15.9 percent of its Black residents, is tied with Louisiana and trails only California, which Bloomberg said had gotten 16.8 percent of its Black population vaccinated.
The Bloomberg rankings are based on vaccination data from the 41 states, the District of Columbia and two cities (New York City and Philadelphia) that report race and ethnicity with its vaccination data. Bloomberg said those jurisdictions represent 93.5 percent of people in the United States and 92 percent of doses administered so far.
Bloomberg said that Black residents make up 6.9 percent of Massachusetts’ population and 5.6 percent of its vaccinated population, making it one of just a handful of states where Black residents are getting close to what Bloomberg called their “fair share of vaccinations.”
Massachusetts does not appear to be faring as well with its Hispanic residents, according to Bloomberg.
While Hispanic residents make up 11.8 percent of the state’s population, they account for just 5.3 percent of the state’s known vaccinated population, Bloomberg said.
Massachusetts has vaccinated 8.7 percent of the Hispanic population here, but trails states like California (14.9 percent of the Hispanic population is vaccinated), North Dakota (14.5 percent), Rhode Island (11.9 percent), Illinois (11.4 percent), Florida (9.5 percent) and others.
With 22.4 percent of the state’s white population vaccinated, Massachusetts ranks eighth in the country behind North Dakota (33.6 percent), California (26.7 percent), Rhode Island (25.1 percent), Vermont (24.8 percent), Maryland (23.8 percent), Colorado (23.4 percent) and Connecticut (22.9 percent).
The Baker administration is due to release an updated set of data on vaccinations here — including race and ethnicity data — Thursday at 5 p.m. when it publishes the weekly vaccination report.
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