Indian health providers continue to combat COVID-19 a year into pandemic
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Indianz.Com
The coronavirus pandemic in California has led to rising rates of domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health problems and food insecurity among the state’s Native population, a tribal health advocate said Monday.
Virginia Hedrick, executive director of the California Consortium for Urban Indian Health, said the pandemic has exacerbated social and health disparities that existed within tribal communities before COVID-19 became rampant.
“None of these inequities were necessarily borne out of the pandemic,” she said. “These are things that are being highlighted by the pandemic.”
“I hope it’s something that we will learn lessons from.”
During a conference call Monday, representatives from the California Department of Public Health, tribal health advocates and a state epidemiologist described their efforts to curb coronavirus infection rates within tribal communities. As of Monday, 8,701 Native people in California have tested positive for COVID-19. That amounts to about 0.3 percent of all positive cases in the state. Native people account for about 0.5 percent of the state’s population. About 165 Natives in the state have died from the virus. California is home to the second largest number of tribes of any state and the largest number of Native people, said Christina Snider, tribal advisor for Gov. Gavin Newsom. She said the governor’s office has hosted weekly government-to-government phone calls with elected tribal leaders and Native health advocates in which state health experts have provided information about available coronavirus response funds and technical assistance. Snider said the governor’s office also has included tribal representatives on state vaccine advisory committees and has allocated $50 million to counties and tribes for non-congregate sheltering of people who test positive for COVID-19. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Newsom administration has included tribal nations in frequent communications and calls as government partners in order to facilitate access to the best information, tools and resources to ensure the safety of their communities, patrons and employees,” she said."Native American Indians and Alaskan Native People are contracting #COVID at rate 3.5 times that of our non-Hispanic white counterparts. We are dying at a rate of 1.8 times that of our non-Hispanic white counterparts": Virginia Hedrick, Executive Director for @CCUIH_CA. pic.twitter.com/wgmGn2Zok1
— Ethnic Media Services (@EthnicMediaSvc) February 12, 2021

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