It has been a week of recalculation and assessment, as Virginians collectively and individually continue to work to avoid the spread of COVID-19 amid new evidence that African-Americans and Latinos are being hard hit.

Information released by the Virginia Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed 3,645 positive cases of COVID-19 in the state, with 615 hospitalizations and 75 deaths, including 32 at the Canterbury Reha- bilitation and Health Care Center in Henrico County, a center that once boasted of introducing a level of post-hospitalization care.

Breakdowns of figures on deaths by race and ethnic group have been hard to come by nationally. But several states and cities, including Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Connecticut and Las Vegas, have reported that African-Americans and other minority groups have been disparately stricken by COVID-19.

Congress and private organizations such as the NAACP have been pressing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to release such de- mographic information, but so far to no avail.

Virginia is among fewer than 12 states reporting data on the race or ethnicity of those testing positive and dying with the disease.

While the figures are incomplete, as of Monday, African-Americans accounted for 28 percent of Virginia’s confirmed cases, while African-Americans comprise 20 percent of the state’s population, according to state Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver.

Another 12 percent of the confirmed cases involve Latinos, Dr. Oliver reported, also higher for a group that represents 9 percent of the state’s population.

Of those who have died of COVID-19 in Virginia, 18.7 are African-American and 0.04 percent are Latino.

Dr. Oliver said the data likely under represents the situation largely because of the difficulty in collecting information on the race or ethnicity of those who are tested.

No data on race or ethnicity is available for 54 percent of the people who have tested positive in the state, Dr. Oliver said.

He said the current pandemic has exposed problems in the way data on test specimens and death is reported. He said he and other state health officials are working to improve the reporting from health providers and private testing labs to have more complete data and to better track the impact on specific communities.

“We know that long-standing racial inequities in things like access to health care, education and economic opportunities lead to differences in underlying health conditions,” which puts people at greater risk for contracting coronavirus, Gov. Ralph S. Northam said during Wednesday’s briefing. “We need clear data about what this means in Virginia.”

In response to the pace of infection in the state, the CDC has listed Virginia as a state with widespread community transmission.

Information from the state Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services, developed in partnership with the CDC and international and university partners, has helped affirm the CDC’s view that the virus was introduced into Virginia at multiple locations, rather than originating at a single site or with a single source.

The CDC also issued new guidance urging everyone to wear some kind of nose and mouth covering, even if handmade, when outdoors. The guidance is the result of new findings from the National Academy of Science that infected people who appear healthy can spread the virus even if they show no symptoms and that such people can do so by just talking or breathing on someone else. Previously, it was thought the virus was transmitted through droplets produced by coughing or sneezing.

Meanwhile, new projections from the University of Wash- ington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation suggest that Virginia could hit a peak number of coronavirus-related deaths around April 20, rather than between late May and early June as other models have suggested.

If this prediction holds, Virginia would be one of four states whose peaks are expected much sooner than anticipated, with the state potentially seeing as many as 59 deaths reported on Wednesday, April 22 — the date the General Assembly is to reconvene in Richmond.

In a statement, IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray cited social distancing as a key factor in Virginia’s predicted early spike and quick downward trajectory, with predictions estimating a single coronavirus-related death daily by June 1.

“If social distancing measures are relaxed or not implemented, the U.S. will see greater death tolls, the death peak will be later, the burden on hospitals will be much greater and the economic costs will continue to grow,” Dr. Murray said.

Regardless of when the peak comes, the coronavirus already has had a sizable impact on the political and economic future of the state, and officials will have a busy few weeks developing a path forward for Virginia.

With an economic recession on the horizon, Gov. Northam has postponed a number of spending items in his proposed state budget, including raises for teachers and state workers and freezes on in-state college tuition.

Gov. Northam has until Saturday to amend, veto or sign most of the legislation approved during the 2020 General Assembly session, with legislators still on track to address any vetoes or amendments during their special session on April 22.

The House of Delegates is to meet outside the State Capitol on the grounds, while the state Senate plans to convene at the Science Museum of Virginia — requiring a shuttle for the exchange of bills.

The veto session is likely to be marked by efforts to revise the current and upcoming 2020-22 budget to reflect an impending reces- sion resulting from the shutdown of businesses across the state.

Gov. Northam also recommended on Wednesday that local and special elections set for May be postponed until November. General Assembly members will have to take action on the proposal when they return to Richmond for the veto session.

Gov. Northam also announced that he is using his executive authority to move the congressional primary elections from Tuesday, June 9, to Tuesday, June 23.

“We have wrestled with our options, and none of them are ideal or perfect,” Gov. Northam said. “Postponing these elections is the best way to protect democracy without endangering the public health or violating the stay-at-home order.”

In a new effort to stem the overloading of Virginia’s hospitals, the governor has called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to transform three convention centers in the state, including the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Downtown, into temporary hospitals. When fully prepared, the facilities will be able to house 1,107 acute patients or 1,848 non-acute patients with COVID-19, freeing up space at existing hospitals, the governor said.

Despite Gov. Northam and other governors issuing pleas to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, states continue to be forced compete for life-saving equipment from the federal stockpile, as well as against each other and private and nonprofit interest and sometimes with the federal government itself.

“That market is chaotic and difficult due to a lack of federal direction,” Gov. Northam said. “We continue to compete for the same supplies.”

Documentation released Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform showed that FEMA has provided Virginia with very little of the PPE the state regularly orders, with some shipments ranging from less than 50 percent to 7.7 percent of what the state requested.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is working on creating an al- liance of states to bid on equipment collectively. Gov. Northam announced Virginia will spend $27 million to buy medical equipment and supplies from a private provider.

“We have a responsibility to prepare, and we have prepared for the worst,” Gov. Northam said. “The PPE, the ventilators, our bed space—we are ramping all that up for a surge that we expect in a few weeks.”