LAS VEGAS (AP) - As COVID-19 has swept across Nevada, one east Las Vegas community has experienced the worst of it.
More than 10,000 cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus have been reported in the 89110 ZIP code east of downtown, an area with a majority of Hispanic residents - nearly 54%, compared with 33% in the city overall, according to 2019 U.S. Census data.
Officials say that helps explain why the disease has run rampant in the area, as Latinos have been hit especially hard by the virus.
“Many of the people in that area, their occupation makes them more exposed to the virus because they’re working in service industry or jobs where they’re highly exposed,” said Dr. Fermin Leguen, acting chief health officer at the Southern Nevada Health District. “They don’t have the opportunity, as (those) in other ZIP codes, to work from home or work limited hours.”
The 89110 ZIP code is home to more than 70,000 residents, making it one of the most densely populated areas in the county, and has many working-class residents and multi-generational families living in one home, Leguen told the Las Vegas Review-Journal .
“For many people, they don’t have that many protections,” Leguen said. “They are not paid if they don’t work, so it’s a very tough decision for them. But they have to concede they could get sick themselves and transmit it.”
Health officials are hoping on-the-ground activism will save lives.
The 10,079 cases reported through Wednesday among residents of the area was 36% more than the 7,410 in the second-highest area ZIP code, 89108, northwest of downtown.
Guy Girardin, president of Puentes (“Bridges” in Spanish), a nonprofit that connects Latinos with health and social services, said language barriers and lack of access to health care also contribute to cases in the area. The nearest testing site is at the city’s Cashman Center convention hall, a 20-minute drive or a long bus ride away.
“It’s a medical wasteland,” Girardin said. “You can’t not treat 20% of the population and think you’re going to end the pandemic. You just can’t.”
Leguen said in August that reaching Latinos after they test positive is a challenge because of language barriers. The district has since hired 300 more Spanish speakers and is working with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on community contact tracing.
Las Vegas City Councilwoman Olivia Diaz, whose ward includes the area, joined local officials in a campaign called Está en Tus Manos (“It’s in Your Hands”) to build trust with residents and encourage people to get tested.
“The campaign builds trust with the Latino community by establishing presence not only via traditional media such as television, radio and direct mail, but also on the ground at supermarkets, small businesses, unions, local consulates, food distribution sites (and) church groups,” Diaz said in a statement.
Diaz said she and others also are working to get the word out about the urgency of getting vaccinated.
“Many people in these communities are hesitant to get the vaccine,” Girardin said. “In order to work in communities that are marginalized, you don’t try to convince people to get the vaccine through social media or billboards. You have to get into the community and build trust and rapport with them in person.”
Puentes and its partners Three Square and Mater Academy, a K-12 public charter school in the area, host a monthly resource fair to provide medical resources and food to families.
Mater Academy also strives to build awareness of the virus among its students, whether they attend in person or take online classes. Those who attend the school clean their desks at the end of the day and walk through halls and rooms with COVID-19 air purifiers to kill viruses in the air.
Even so, school nurse Kenia Delatorre didn’t have to think long when asked whether she’s seen COVID-19 ravage entire families.
Her co-worker Angie Leyva, a mother of four who lives with her 63-year-old mother, said all but one of her family members caught the disease within a month before the school year started.
Delatorre said she sees many families in similar circumstances.
“A lot of our school, most of them need food for lunch, and the families are affected. A lot of them have lost their jobs, and under those circumstances the school opens up,” Delatorre said. “It’s a different environment for them, and they’re open to coming to school instead of being at home and working virtually, which makes it tremendously hard for them.”
Molly Garcia, 60, a retiree who lives in the area, said all nine members of her household got COVID-19 in November, leaving the whole family out of work for three weeks.
“It was hard for a while. We barely had food,” Garcia said last week. “Even when my son was feeling sick, we’d still sent him to the grocery store to get food for us. There was no one else to do it.”
Principal Renee Fairless said combatting misinformation and distrust is key if authorities are going to stop the spread. She said the school recently had a parent of three students who was hospitalized on a ventilator at the same time other parents were questioning why they’d need to wear a mask to visit the school.
“We know this is the highest rate in the state, so education is a big key,” Fairless said. “These are the things that really work. Wearing a mask is not fake. It’s real.”
Girardin, at Puentes, said the other big need exposed by the pandemic is community inequality.
“If there’s any good to COVID-19, it has revealed a lot of cracks in our health care system and what’s wrong with what’s going on,” he said. “Now, it’s up to everyone to look at that and say, ‘OK, we got to fix this going forward.’”
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