COVID-19 cases escalate in Fayette County’s Hispanic, African immigrant populations
The number of novel coronavirus cases in Fayette County’s Hispanic and African immigrant populations is rising, public health officials warned this week.
The virus has already had an outsized impact on Fayette County’s black community. Seven of the 14 Fayette County residents who have died from the virus were black. Black patients make up approximately 30 percent of all coronavirus cases in the county, yet only 15 percent of Fayette County residents are black.
Now, COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on Fayette County’s Hispanic community as the number of cases rise, health statistics show.
Approximately 17 percent of the 847 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 are Hispanic, according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department figures. Fayette County’s population is 7 percent Hispanic.
As of Friday, 144 Hispanic residents have tested positive for the virus, health department figures show. Of those 26 are inmates at the Federal Medical Center, which has struggled to contain an outbreak that has killed five inmates and infected nearly 280 prisoners.
“We saw the increase start the first week of May.,” said Kevin Hall, the health department spokesman.
Health department data shows the number of new infections in the Hispanic community grew by double digits each week in May, culminating with 29 new cases reported the week of May 30. As of Thursday, the latest breakdown available, there were 20 new cases.
Protesters who have taken to the streets in Lexington and Louisville over the past week to protest longstanding racial injustices and police brutality have also demanded that Kentucky fix a health care system that has repeatedly failed minority populations and is a symbol of systematic racism.
Also troubling is an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases in African immigrant populations, Hall told the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council this week.
The health department is working with a host of organizations and leaders in those communities to increase education and expand the availability of coronavirus tests, he said.
The health department is fortunate to have a certified medical interpreter who is helping coordinate the health department’s communication and outreach efforts, Hall said.
Still, there are challenges, Hall said.
Spanish-language information on COVID-19 is easier to find. Getting information to people in Swahili and Kinyarwanda, the languages spoken in the African immigrant communities where the virus is spreading, is more difficult, he said.
“We have identified some community members who can help us get the word out” Hall said. In many immigrant communities “there is a lot of distrust and mistrust of government agencies or quasi-government agencies,” he said.
Public health is also working with the city’s international outreach center to get the word out, he said.
Isabel Taylor, director of Global Lex, the city’s international center, said Mayor Linda Gorton’s office has worked since the beginning of the pandemic to translate much-needed health-related information about COVID-19 into dozens of different languages. That information can be found at www.lexingtonky.gov/COVID-19/multilingual-information.
The mayor’s office is also working with several community partners to get information to the city’s burgeoning and diverse international community. One those partners includes RadioLex, which has provided multilingual information on COVID-19 on its broadcasts, she said. Another group of health care, community and other leaders are also upping outreach on COVID-19 prevention to Lexington’s Spanish-speaking population after the rise in cases, Taylor said.
Taylor said that includes messaging on several social media platforms to “send direct Covid-19 prevention and compliance messages to community members through What’s app, texting, Facebook and other means with messages from clergy, business owners and other local leaders.”
But Taylor said getting that information out is a challenge and encouraged everyone in Lexington to help.
“Having this information reach our community members who are learning English is a challenge and everyone’s help is requested, neighbor to neighbor,” Taylor said. In addition to the city’s multilingual COVID-19 response page, people can also go to RadioLex and download broadcasts in various languages to help neighbors who may not speak English as a first language, she said.
Lack of transportation has kept some in minority communities from getting tests, Hall said. The health department has a limited number of home testing kits for people who do not have transportation, Hall said. People can call the health department’s COVID hotline at 859-899-2222 to inquire about an at-home testing kit. People will be screened and the health department will then bring the tests to the person’s home.
Free testing at the Bluegrass Community and Technical College continues. There are slots open for drive-up testing 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. from June 8 to June 12.
Register at http://krogerhealth.com/covidtesting or by calling 1-888-852-2567. The testing site is for anyone who wants a test.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 12:08 PM.
