MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County health officials are urging people to get tested for COVID-19 if they are showing symptoms.
Data from the Shelby County Health Department shows the number of patients in the Latino community quadrupled in three weeks.
“Three weeks ago, I saw maybe one or two patients with COVID-19 in the hospital,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Manoj Jain said. “Then over the weekend I saw five or six patients.”
Dr. Jain is a member of the county’s COVID-19 task force. He said the spike in positive cases means more Latinos are being tested.
“Some people are afraid about being tested in general because there are consequences of being tested positive,” Mauricio Calvo with Latino Memphis said.
Some are afraid of losing money, but a big concern is the health department sharing people’s information with immigration authorities.
Calvo said there is a lot of concern to put to rest.
“One is to tell people where to get tested, to inform people that testing is free, that testing is safe, and that it’s confidential,” Calvo said.
Calvo said he is working with health officials to get the message out through a targeted social media campaign.
“The will is there,” he said. “Sometimes the resources are not there because they don’t have enough bilingual personnel, because the material is not out.”
According to Dr. Jain, low testing numbers are never good.
“If large numbers of people do not get tested, and the infection spreads, then what we have is a large number of individuals who will then end up in the hospital,” Dr. Jain said.
As of Sunday, Latinos made up just less than 10% of all positive cases in Shelby County.
