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City Enlists Community Doctors To Conduct COVID-19 Testing For 300 Schools In Hispanic Neighborhoods
By
Sophia Chang
Published Oct 23, 2020
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Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
By
Sophia Chang
Published Oct 23, 2020
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The SOMOS network of healthcare providers in largely immigrant communities will conduct on-site COVID-19 testing for 300 District 6 schools in upper Manhattan, as part of the city's randomized testing protocol at schools.
The 2,500 doctors in the network will offer “culturally-competent comfort and information to communities, especially to Latino, Asian and Black families and teachers who will now be tested in their own languages by their own community doctors,” according to SOMOS. About 85% of the student population in District 6, located in Washington Heights and Inwood, is Hispanic or Latino. The early days of the pandemic had a enormous impact on Hispanics and Latinos in New York City.
The city Department of Education began its random testing protocol of students and staffers who are at school for in-person learning on October 9th. The DOE has mandated that 10-20 % of each school's in-person learning community will be randomly tested monthly, though students who decline to participate will be transitioned to remote-only learning.
The vast majority of the young children living in the district already go to a SOMOS network doctor for medical attention, which may ease the worries of parents about the schools' testing protocol.
“We have treated so many of these kids since birth — this is about family doctors bringing a proven national model to students and teachers, in their own languages,” said Dr. Ramon Tallaj, Chairman and Founder of SOMOS. "As doctors who have served NYC’s hardest-hit communities since the outbreak of the pandemic and stepped up around the country, we have witnessed the devastating impact of COVID-19 on communities of color. Absent a vaccine, one of the most effective measures to slow the spread of the virus is through rapid, reliable, and robust testing programs in the most vulnerable communities in our city."
The DOE had previously said other partners for the school random testing program will include Bio Reference Laboratory and Fulgent Genetics. After the tests are collected from students and processed, the samples are discarded and results will be sent to the state and city Departments of Health, and to the Test & Trace Corps.
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COVID-19
coronavirus
schools reopening
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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