During the initial stages of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it became abundantly clear that there were no comprehensive surveillance systems in place to systematically collect and/or report race and ethnic data for confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada. This issue was brought to the forefront when it was reported that Black Americans were more likely than the general American population to be diagnosed with and die from COVID-19. Similar health disparities have also been identified for other people of colour and Indigenous groups in North America. Vivetha Thambinathan joins the Public Health Insight Team to discuss the importance of collecting racial and ethnic demographic data in a culturally appropriate manner, the cautions associated with interpreting data without proper context, as well as some strategies to ensure the data informs public health programming and policies to address health inequities.

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