Free COVID-19 testing increases access to minority groups amid rising community spread

article

Testing crews take a sample at a drive-up COVID-19 testing event in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. (FOX 9)

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) - As community spread increases in Minnesota, health officials are holding free COVID-19 testing events. Cars lined up Saturday for free testing at Winners Chapel International Minnesota in Brooklyn Park.

“They want to know if they’re positive, so they can quarantine and isolate and make sure they will continue to keep their communities safe as we go through this pandemic,” said Melissa Lallak, the Hennepin County Disease Mitigation Branch director.

Free COVID-19 testing increases access to minority groups amid rising community spread

As community spread increases in Minnesota, health officials are holding free COVID-19 testing events. Cars lined up Saturday for free testing at Winners Chapel International Minnesota in Brooklyn Park.

Hennepin County held the event in partnership with Minnesota Africans United, a coalition representing African immigrants statewide.

“Our community has been hard hit by COVID-19 and if we work together to keep our communities safe, we are going to defeat the virus,” said Basil Ajuo, the CEO of Minnesota Africans United.

County health data shows black residents have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Black residents make up about 13 percent of the population in Hennepin County, but makeup about 28 percent of the county's COVID-19 cases.

“We are frontline workers, we serve a lot of the community, looking after our parents, looking after the elderly, working seven days a week,” said Ajuo. “We are so hard hit and we expose ourselves to so much risk.”

Testing events like these help increase access and understanding of the increased community spread of the virus. Currently, Brooklyn Park is the city with the second-highest amount of confirmed cases in the county, according to data.

“We break down that data by city and I present it at our regular meetings for our COVID incident command group and when groups come forward from Brooklyn Park, we did notice there was a little spike in the area, so it was one of our priorities to make this [testing event] happen,” said Lallak.

“We want the community to come out for testing and the only way we get our numbers do we now know how to begin to flatten the curve,” said Ajuo.

There will be two more free COVID-19 testing events in Brooklyn Park in the coming weeks. Insurance or identification is not required.

Saturday, October 3