Description of Methodology
We obtained data on observed cumulative COVID-19 cases and deaths in the selected counties , as well as in Colorado and New Mexico statewide , as of October 12 , 2020 from USAFacts ( https :// usafacts . org / visualizations / coronaviruscovid-19-spread-map /). Using 2019 Colorado state and county population estimates from the Colorado Health Information Dataset ( https :// cohealthviz . dphe . state . co . us / t / HealthInformaticsPublic / views / CoHIDLandingPage / LandingPage ? iframeSizedToWindow = true &: embed = y &: showAppBanner = false &: display _ count = no &: showVizHome = no ) and 2018 New Mexico state and county population estimates from New Mexico ’ s Indicator-Based Information System ( https :// ibis . health . state . nm . us /), we then calculated the expected number of COVID cases and deaths in each county using these equations :
Expected Cases in County = ( County population x Observed Number of COVID cases in state ) divided by State population
Expected Deaths in County = ( County population x Observed Number of COVID-19 deaths in state ) divided by State population
Next , we calculated standardized incidence ratios ( SIR ) and standardized mortality ratios ( SMR ) by dividing the observed number of cases and deaths in each county , respectively , by the expected number of cases and deaths .
SIR = observed number of COVID-19 cases divided by expected number of COVID-19 cases .
SMR = observed number of COVID-19 death divided by expected number of COVID-19 deaths .
If the SIR or SMR is greater than one , that indicates that more COVID-19 cases or deaths , respectively , were observed in the county than would be expected based on state-wide rates . If the SIR or SMR is less than one , fewer COVID-19 cases or deaths , respectively , were observed in the county than would be expected based on state-wide rates .
We separately adjusted the SIRs and SMRs for age and race using the age and race distribution of COVID-19 reported by each state ( https :// covid19 . colorado . gov / data , https :// cvprovider . nmhealth . org / public-dashboard . html ). These distributions were not publicly available for COVID-19 deaths in New Mexico . We calculated 95 % confidence intervals ( CI ) for the SCR and SMR . Death counts of less than 10 are suppressed in figures and tables .
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