Newsroom

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn are taking a toll on mental health for many Americans. New analysis and state fact sheets examine mental health and substance use disorder needs in the states and capacity to meet residents’ needs prior to the pandemic, which is expected to place additional strains on the system.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is expanding rapidly, particularly in many states in the South and West. The shifting surge in outbreaks to the South and West will likely exacerbate the disparate effects of COVID-19 for people of color.

As the nation continues to struggle to contain the spread of coronavirus, there is considerable debate about when and how to reopen schools. This analysis finds that one in four teachers (24%, or about 1.47 million people), have a condition that puts them at higher risk of serious illness from coronavirus.

The COVID-19 pandemic and killing of George Floyd along with other recent deaths of African American people at the hands of police have laid bare stark structural and systemic racial inequities and their impacts on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. 

“At KFF, we are rededicating ourselves to doing everything we can to address these larger issues that underline our work.”
— Drew Altman

In an Axios column, Drew Altman finds almost half of African Americans and Latinos are struggling to pay their bills because of coronavirus. “This pain would surely be worse without Washington’s relief efforts. Even so, the hardship is real, and that strengthens the case for more aid and better targeting to the families that need it most.”

States are taking aggressive action to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus and prepare their health care systems for dealing with those who become ill with COVID-19, the disease the virus causes. This tool features state-level data on COVID-19 cases and deaths, state policy actions, and data about health coverage and provider capacity within each state. 

This tracker provides the number of cases and deaths from novel coronavirus by country, the trend in case and death counts by country, and a global map showing which countries have cases and deaths.  The data are drawn from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center’s COVID-19 map.