COVID-19 has affected tens of thousands of people in Maryland, and some local areas have suffered from the disease far worse than others.
Johns Hopkins Medicine is now leading an initiative in hard hit areas of Baltimore to provide testing for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. “We are working with the Baltimore City Health Department to identify areas with a significant amount of cases,” says Kathleen Page, associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Page helped organize the community testing effort. “Our goal is to test up to 150 people at each of our events to prevent further spread of the illness,” she says.
The team’s first testing took place at the Sacred Heart of Jesus church in East Baltimore, in the 21224 ZIP code, which the city health department designated as a “hot spot.” The neighborhood and parish have a largely Latinx population.
“We have seen a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Latinx community in Baltimore as well as around the U.S,” Page says. “Most of the Latinx patients I’ve met are not eligible for benefits, have no health insurance and rent rooms in crowded houses. The need to work, lack of occupational protections and crowded living conditions have led to high transmission in this community.”
Sherita Golden, vice president and chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins and an organizer of the initiative, agrees. “This is a very vulnerable population,” she says. “We want to assist this community before they are in dire circumstances.”
For the June 25 event and later, on June 30, Johns Hopkins clinicians and staff members set up a temporary testing site on the church’s parking lot. The team followed up with those tested to give them results within 48 hours.
“Our team has tested nearly 150 people, and has been able to help patients who tested positive with the appropriate care they need as well as other important resources,” says Nicki McCann, vice president of payer/provider transformation at Johns Hopkins. McCann also helped organize the testing efforts.
The team plans to continue testing in Baltimore neighborhoods several days per week, and it plans to move to other locations in the city and potentially beyond Baltimore as needed. Appointments for testing are recommended.
In addition to the Baltimore City Health Department, the initiative is being performed in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Health and Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development.
Along with testing in the community, clinicians provide much needed testing for homeless shelters, sober living facilities, skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes, all of which have been hard hit by COVID-19.