Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts, State Rep. Liz Miranda has been advocating for communities of color — in her district and beyond. But a few weeks ago, that fight got even harder when the virus hit her and about 18 members of her family.

“We have a 2-year-old little cousin who tested positive, and the oldest was 78-years-old. We have every age range,” Miranda told Jim Braude on WGBH News’ Greater Boston Wednesday.

Miranda's grandmother died in mid-April — though her family is unsure whether she was COVID-19 positive. Then her father — whose first test came back negative — was hospitalized with the disease.

That’s when Miranda and the rest of her family got tested.

“We really felt strongly that, although we were told they tested negative, that we might have been exposed to COVID-19,” she said.

Now Miranda is on the mend, several family members are “in the clear” and her father is doing a little better, too.

“My dad is finally home. He’s still not out of the woods yet. He has COPD and diabetes and heart disease, so his preexisting conditions really impacted his COVID experience,” she said.

Miranda said her family’s story is a common one in her district, which includes parts of Dorchester and Roxbury — two predominantly minority neighborhoods in Boston, which together have an infection rate roughly twice as high as the rest of the state.

“In the testing location where I was, Bowdoin Street Health Center, one-in-three tested positive,” she said.

And communities of color across the state have been hit just as hard.

“Chelsea, Brockton, Randolph, other cities and towns with high minority populations are all disproportionally impacted. In Boston, 24 percent of the population is African American, yet [African Americans account for] 42 percent of the deaths,” she explained. “We know that immigrants are not accessing testing because they’re scared that ICE is going to jump out of the bushes.”

Miranda said she hopes the crisis will put those disparities front and center.

“What we have here is sort of a shining light on the disproportionate nature of our public health system and our social safety net,” she said. “I’m sad COVID hit my family and my community hard, but thankful that the rest of the commonwealth was able to see how most residents of the commonwealth are living.”

But as Massachusetts prepares to start easing up on coronavirus restrictions, Miranda says she is worried the state will reopen before it can keep its communities of color safe from the virus.

“We have a long way to go as a commonwealth to make sure we govern to protect all of the citizens of the state,” she said.