HOUSTON — The starkly divergent ways in which the coronavirus has affected neighboring communities in the Houston area — one rich and one poor — underscore how it is a magnifier of inequities.

To see how the virus can largely spare one neighborhood but upend one next door, look at Bellaire, with its tidy yards and spacious homes, and Gulfton, where apartment blocks pack residents in tight.

“We’re last in voter turnout, we’re last in census participation, but we’re first in Covid,” Edward Pollard, 35, a first-term councilman, said ruefully as he walked through his Gulfton district handing out free masks at tire shops and hair salons on a recent Sunday this month.