Community Health Workers Are Key for Under Resourced Communities with Higher Case Rates

While COVID-19 has spread across the entire county, some cities and communities have experienced higher case rates than others. From the onset of the pandemic, communities of color, under-resourced communities and communities with large numbers of essential workers have been most impacted by COVID-19. Among the cities and communities with the highest case rates: the areas of Central, South, and Southeast LA; proportions of the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and Antelope valleys. 

While the county addresses geographic areas with high case rates, health outcome metrics reveal that vaccination status continues to play a critical role in determining the risk of transmission and critical illness. 

For the week ending January 29, county residents who were unvaccinated were two times more likely to be infected as compared to individuals who were fully vaccinated. When comparing unvaccinated individuals with those vaccinated and fully boosted, unvaccinated people were nearly four times more likely to be infected. 

As of January 29, unvaccinated people were more than five times likelier to be hospitalized compared to fully vaccinated residents. Fully vaccinated and boosted individuals were more than 18 times less likely to end up hospitalized as compared to unvaccinated people. And, the likelihood of ending up in the ICU was also significantly higher for unvaccinated residents. As compared to residents who were fully vaccinated, unvaccinated residents were seven times more likely to end up in the ICU, and more than 31 times more likely as compared to people who were fully vaccinated and boosted. 

To help close the gaps in vaccination coverage, Public Health continues to deploy resources to help coordinate and mobilize community health workers, also called promotoras, to conduct healing-informed grassroots community outreach. 

According to a study by the Ad Council that looked at the trusted messengers that consumers turn to for social and societal issues, new information–when presented by a trusted messenger–was most likely to influence a respondent’s change in views and behavior. 

Through the Community Health Worker Outreach Initiative, promotoras provide accurate and up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 and connect residents with needed critical services, including health insurance, testing, mental health services, food pantries and housing assistance. They also share current public health directives, inform residents about safety requirements at sectors that are open, and requirements for worker safety.

As of February 6, the Community Health Worker Outreach Initiative has completed more than 450,000 outreach activities, including support for 2,500 in-person vaccination events and over 14,000 virtual COVID-19 educational sessions. Combined, these efforts have reached more than three million residents to date. Additionally, Public Health will host more than 800 mobile vaccine clinics this week, many of which are located across many of the under-resourced communities impacted the most by this latest surge.