According to a recent study from APM Research Lab, nationwide, Black people are experiencing a higher death rate from COVID-19, more than twice as high as the rate for White and Asian Americans.
13WMAZ spoke with two local families who lost loved ones from the virus.
Antuanette Davis lost her 75-year-old mother in April.
Davis' mom was a retired Houston County School teacher. She said she was the glue that keep the family together.
"She was the foundation of our family and with that, it's brought us all closer. Of course, we miss her," Davis said.
Her mother died the same night she was rushed to the hospital.
"She was actually picked up by the ambulance and taken to the hospital on the fourth of April because of her dehydration, and from there that night, she literally transitioned. We were told at a later date that she did test positive for COVID," she said.
Valerie Lockhart-Snear lost her 79-year-old father in May.
Lockhart-Snear's father was a veteran who served in the Army and Navy.
It all began when he was having trouble breathing, so Lockhart-Snear took him to the hospital.
"I'm thinking I'm just taking him in, let him get checked out and they're gonna call me to come pick him back up," Lockhart-Snear said.
Her father died nearly three weeks later in the hospital.
"By the time they started doing video, it was too late for me to see him alive, when I saw him he had passed. My mom died when I was young. So, that was our only living parent. So, to lose him was like, devastating, and we lost him like the the day after mother's day," she said.
The study from APM Research Lab shows that 1 of every 1,020 Black people have died from COVID-19.
Davis and Lockhart-Snear say a lack of access to health care in minority communities plays a major role. They both offered solutions.
"We need to make healthcare available and affordable to people," Lockhart-Snear said.
"In order to change that, we have to have a voice and our voice is to get out there and vote," Davis said.