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Health leaders tell Senate committee COVID is hitting Northwest Arkansas’ Hispanic and Marshallese communities hardest
Summary
Health officials told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that Hispanic and Marshallese residents in Benton and Washington counties account for a disproportionate share of COVID-19 cases and deaths, calling for language‑concordant contact tracing, wraparound services and expanded testing.
Pearl McElfish, vice chancellor for UAMS Northwest, told the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that minority communities in Northwest Arkansas are accounting for a disproportionate share of COVID-19 cases and deaths and urged targeted support. "In Northwest Arkansas, that number is 45 percent" of cases in the Hispanic or Latinx community, McElfish said, and the Marshallese community accounts for about 18.5 percent of positive tests in the region.
McElfish said roughly half of recent COVID-19 deaths in Benton and Washington counties have been among Marshallese residents, and that many patients are arriving later in the course of illness. She attributed higher mortality to delayed care and higher rates of comorbidities, and offered to provide more precise age and category counts when available.
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