Long-standing disparities in health and health care have put many people at higher risk of COVID-19 infections. During the COVID-19 pandemic, communities of color or socioeconomically disadvantaged people are being disproportionately
affected by COVID-19. It is important to identify vulnerable neighborhoods that have similar population characteristics in terms of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic, and demographic status. Once the vulnerable neighborhoods
are identified, distributing healthcare resources (e.g., beds in intensive unit care, ventilators, physicians, and testing kits) to these areas will (1) contribute to the achievement of health equity as well as (2)
mitigate the confusion associated with a lack of COVID-19 health care resources.
To help the achievement of health equity during a COVID-19 pandemic, We developed a CyberGIS application, COVID-19 Vulnerability Explorer which is an automatic system that creates a visually appealing set of maps and charts
that help (1) locate neighborhoods that have high infection rates of COVID-19 and (2) give insights into socioeconomic and demographic composition of neighborhoods that are vulnerable to COVID-19. This tool will help
public health officials (1) to understand racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in the COVID-19 outbreak and (2) to make decisions regarding where to distribute COVID-19 healthcare resources.
COVID-19 Vulnerability Explorer currently supports the city of Chicago, New York City, Greater Phoenix, Greater Miami, extended Chicago areas, and Illinois. The analysis in these regions is at the Zip code level. For the
entire U.S., the analysis can be done at the county level.