Pamela Cruz Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
It was March 5, 2020 when Sacramento County declared a health emergency due to COVID-19, and since then, for residents, organizations and government "it's been quite a journey" of learning, which will make the word "normalcy" take on a whole new meaning, as despite efforts it has not been able to break free of the Purpura level of restriction.
The return of some travelers who had been on a cruise ship was the beginning of the county's "Stations of the Cross" that brought with it guidelines, restrictions, tests and more tests and additional measures that were never enough, recalled Olivia Kasirye, an official with the Sacramento County Department of Public Health.
As of March 12, Sacramento had 4,770 cases of COVID-19, with a stable pattern where about 60 percent of those infected are residents between 18 and 59 years of age, which speaks of a mobile population, said the official during a briefing held by Ethnic Media Services.
In this regard, he noted that of the deaths recorded due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus - 1,525 - about 80 percent of them were in people over 65, and of those, 50 percent were in residents who were in long-term care facilities, which made it "one of the most affected populations.
This population was joined by those who, because of their geographic location, were underserved, those where the zip code makes a difference in services and care. So when the Department of Public Health received funds to help the community, part of that response was allocated to serve these vulnerable areas.
Kasirye recalled that through different collaborations they were able to help homeless people by giving them access to clean water, sanitation and testing.
The team of firefighters and paramedics made a difference, because thanks to them, older adults from various long-term care facilities were able to be diagnosed with tests, and if necessary they themselves transferred them to hospitals, he said.
He explained that another vulnerable group were farmers, who could not stay at home and continue to work during the pandemic, a situation that placed them in the most vulnerable spectrum, the positive cases were not long in coming.
In response, she said, the Housing for the Harvest program provided comprehensive services for people in the agriculture sector, and community-based testing was also offered at 11 sites, which helped ensure that even people without health care, without a home or medical facility to go to for testing or with transportation issues, could be tested. "So we made sure that these testing sites were in communities that were underserved."
Vaccines have arrived in the county, however, Sacramento remains at Purple, the most restrictive level of all due to the still high incidence of COVID-19 positive cases.
"[Contagion] is way down compared to where it was at the end of 2020. So we've definitely turned the corner, we've passed the peak and now our efforts are focused on vaccination," determined Olivia Kasirye.
Mike Nguy, Health Equity Lead for the Sacramento County Department of Public Health, noted that the deployment of vaccine doses in the area has been thanks to multiple partners who have sought to make Cuellar the most efficient route for these immunizations to reach everyone.
In that regard, he said that with a limited number of vaccines, "we were really working very hard and closely with our community partners to ensure equity and inclusive outreach, especially in those zip codes that have been disproportionately impacted by SARS-CoV-2.
Currently, the county has two mass vaccination sites, one of which is in one of the hardest hit and underserved areas, in an effort to level the "playing field" and ensure that disproportionately impacted communities and areas have equitable access to the resources needed to address the pandemic.
Added to this, she recalled, have been community pop-up clinics, in which they work closely with areas and organisations to reach out to those residents who face digital language barriers.
"We not only talk about how to provide vaccines equitably, but also how to combat misinformation and align some of the communication to build trust among community members, especially in indigenous people and communities of color," she added.
Mike Nguy, Sacramento County Department of Public Health Health Health Equity Leader
He reminded that it is necessary that residents can have access to resolve all their doubts regarding the vaccine, so that they can apply it and enter a new phase of the pandemic.
In that sense, he explained that the best vaccine is the one that is available, and given the shortage of doses it is necessary that people accept the vaccine that is currently available to them, which will prevent further spread of the virus and the disease.
"Especially at this time when we have so few doses available and the demand is so much greater than the number of doses, if you go to a site, whatever vaccine they offer, it's the best," he added.
Mike Nguy, Sacramento County Department of Public Health Health Health Equity Leader
Currently, Sacramento County has administered 429,212 doses to its residents, of which 33.8 percent have been to Caucasians, 11.1 percent to Asian Americans, 11.1 percent to multiracial, 8.4 percent to Latinos, 4.1 percent to African Americans and 4.1 percent to Native Americans, 11.8 percent were of other ethnicities, and the origin of 18.3 percent of those immunized is unknown.
The Sacramento Native American Health Center, led by Britta Guerrero, is one of the sites serving one of the communities most affected by COVID-19, and one that has been disproportionately underserved in health care throughout history, as well as serving other underserved communities such as those of color who do not have health insurance.
"About 80 percent of our patients suffer from more than one chronic condition and also have some mental health issue. So there are a lot of social determinants that we need to work on," he stressed.
He added that his patients bear the burden of disproportionate health disparities, which has led to very high rates of COVID-19 and deaths from the disease.
This, he said, is mainly due to the limited access that minority communities have to adequate health facilities, in addition to the poverty they face and the need to keep their jobs, many of them without adequate protection, in order to meet their basic expenses.
Recently, she said, they've increased 106 percent in psychiatric appointments, which meant patients were suffering from depression and anxiety and dealing with all the additional stressors of being isolated, missing work and caring for children, and perhaps dealing with substance abuse issues while separated from their families and community.
"As one of the most vulnerable communities, we decided to start vaccinating all Native Americans 18 years of age and older who have had the opportunity to participate in the Indian Health Services vaccine program. So we are using the Indian Health Services vaccines for our patients who are Native," she said.
"I have a lot of hope and also a lot of concern about the current situation. The peace of hope is that native people have a sense of sharing or collective responsibility for each other and protecting our most vulnerable, so many of the young people have been rushing to get vaccinated. We wanted to work with other communities to make sure that we are doing our part to protect other communities that are underserved or vulnerable," he stressed.
Finally, she said she is hopeful that for the first time, there will be equity for all in obtaining vaccines and that systemic racism in Native communities will be openly discussed in order to remove barriers and value the Native community.
For Rachel Rios, executive director of La Familia Counseling Center, it is very clear that the Latino community has been heavily impacted both in terms of COVID-19 positive cases and deaths, so many of the disparities that exist are represented.
He pointed out that when the pandemic arrived, they did not have the "luxury" of closing the doors of the organization, due to the services they provide to the Latino community that has diverse needs to meet their day to day life.
Currently, he noted that services are focused on telehealth or remote health, with virtual services, however, they recognize that the community suffers from a lack of digital devices, so they cannot access services in any way other than face-to-face.
He explained that since the beginning of the pandemic, infection rates were increasing for Latinos and no one seemed to be paying attention to that, a situation that could have been controlled if they had been "a little more proactive.
"People say Latinos are rallying, but the data shows that Latinos are the essential workers. They are the backbone of our economy in California. They're the ones who go to work. They didn't have the opportunity to telecommute and stay home. They had to show up to work or lose their jobs," he stressed.
Rachel Rios, executive director of La Familia Counseling Center
Given this, she urged that there be a Spanish-speaking testing center in the community where people can feel comfortable, especially people with mixed immigration status or who are undocumented, "so they can come and feel comfortable giving their information and getting a COVID-19 test, because there are a lot of fears, we know that there is a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric before this pandemic happened.
Because of this, he explained that he is hopeful that the narrative around immigrants will change, "that we will see the value and finally recognize that they have been working and that they have been holding our economies together, that we will see the value of all of our diverse communities, but I worry that once the infection comes back, we will go back to the way things were."
Stephanie Nguyen, executive director of Asian Resources, explained that we must ensure that we continue to educate communities to collaborate with each other and to ensure that information, resources and health equity reach everyone.
In that sense, he said that before a new pandemic arrives or a new serious health situation arises again in the country, it is necessary to unite and work in communities to prevent a disproportionate number of lives from being lost again.
For Nancy Xiong, director of development and communications for Hmong Innovating Politics, she noted that two of the biggest challenges right now are access to vaccines and misinformation that exists for some non-English speaking communities.
She explained that many members of the Asian community are ready and interested in getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but in the absence of accurate information about immunization in their language, they are distrustful and sometimes choose not to seek access to the doses.
In addition, there is a lack of data to quantify the real impact on the Asian American community.
"We don't know how many Southeast Asian people have died or if any of our Southeast Asian-owned businesses have received recovery dollars and I think both of those numbers are going to be really important moving forward in terms of how we can take the next steps to really address the issues at hand and find solutions around that," he referenced.
Today, Sacramento County is struggling to make progress on health disparities and is seeking to get more and more residents vaccinated and cared for in the face of a relentless war against COVID-19.
