Coronavirus cases rise in minority communities in Lexington

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Health experts have stressed the impact of the Coronavirus on minority communities. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Fayette and surrounding counties. And it’s not just African-Americans, Hispanics now make up a large part of Fayette County’s 1,200 cases but it’s only 7 percent of the population.

“It’s been slower the last couple of days but that by no means, means that this is over. It is spreading. It is out there and people need to pay attention and take steps to protect themselves,” Hall says.

Kevin Hall, a spokesperson for the Health Department, says protests, businesses opening up and people socializing more, all are reasons for concern.

He says right now it is important to continue to follow public health guidelines…like social distancing, wearing masks and washing your hands. But that’s not always easy to communicate to some communities, especially where hotspots might pop up.

Over the last two to three weeks, the city of Lexington has seen on average 20 to 30 cases of COVID-19 a day.

“What we do know is that there are spots around town whether it’s a grocery store, a market or a restaurant where there have been some concerns and it’s a lack of information,” Hall says. “What we’ve heard when we’ve gone out to visit spots is that they thought this was over, they’ve been told it was over. They weren’t given good information.”

Hall says 24 percent of the cases in Lexington are from the Hispanic community, he says part of the problem is the language barrier.

Isabel Taylor is the Multicultural Affairs Coordinator for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, her job is to try to cross the cultural obstacles.

“It is absolutely critical to have a very clear understanding from the community itself of what is going on and why things are developing as they are. The community itself, the leaders were alarmed,” Taylor says.

Taylor and others are working on communication techniques in different neighborhoods to stress how dangerous the virus still is. That includes going as far as individual phone messages in different languages.