BATON ROUGE - Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has formed a special task force to investigate why African Americans are dying at a much higher rate than the rest of the population from the coronavirus.

"African Americans are comprising about 70% of all COVID-19 deaths, and there are only 33% of the state's population," Gov. Edwards said.

With the disparity of deaths in the African American community, the governor has launched the 'Louisiana COVID-19 Health Equity Task force.'

"I'm asking our universities, research institutions and medical community to lead this effort," says Gov. Edwards.

Seven institutions have been added to the task force including the Nelson Mandela School of Social Policy at Southern University.

Even though the task force still isn't quite in place it already has it's first assignment.

"The immediate assignment for the task force is to make sure communities with health disparities are blanketed with good information on COVID-19 safety and prevention,"

Members from different institutions who will head the task force are expected to be named in the next few days.