CHICAGO — A care station to battle coronavirus is opening in Little Village.
The COVID Care Station will be free, and staff will give visitors information about coronavirus, provide risk assessments and, if necessary, screen people for signs for signs of the virus, said David Ernesto Munar, CEO of Howard Brown Health.
The COVID Care Station will be open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays adjacent to Project Vida, 2659 S. Kedvale Ave. Services are free. The staff are bilingual and a visitor’s immigrant status does not matter.
Howard Brown Health — which typically focuses on providing health care to members of the LGBTQ community — partnered with Project Vida to create the station. They hope to help Latino people, who face unique challenges during the pandemic, Munar said.
Latino people are likely being undercounted in confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in Illinois and Chicago, officials have said. Data has shown people of color are being disproportionately affected by the outbreak.
“Latinx people have the lowest rate of health care coverage of any racial/ethnic group,” Munar said during a Thursday press conference. “Like HIV, coronavirus thrives where there are social inequities.”
At the same time, hostility has grown against Latino immigrants in recent years, Munar said, and that can make it more difficult for them to access resources needed to fight the virus.
Munar said they also plan to launch mobile stations so they can better serve communities of color on the West Side, and Howard Brown Health is working to educate the city’s LGBTQ community about coronavirus.
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