Howard Brown Health CEO and President David Munar announced April 16 that his organization, in collaboration with Project Vida, would establish a new COVID-19 "care station" in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.
The station is located adjacent to Project Vida's headquarters at 2659 S. Kedvale Ave., and utilizes testing supplies provided by the State of Illinois, Munar said. He announced the initiative at Gov. JB Pritzker's April 16 briefing on the state's ongoing COVID-19 response.
The care station would offer risk assessment for COVID-19 infection, medical evaluations and, if indicated, screening for infection, Munar added. Those services are provided without cost, and without regard for immigration status. Staff are bilingual in English and Spanish.
"Both Project VIDA and Howard Brown recognize the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the Latino community," Munar said. "Latinx people have the lowest rate of healthcare coverage of any racial ethnic group. Both organizations have a long history of community mobilization around HIV prevention, education and linkage to care.
"Like HIV, coronavirus thrives where there are social inequities. With society and the federal government increasingly hostile towards Latino immigrants and our families, the magnitude of our health and economic disparities among Latinos are expected to grow."
Munar further noted that Howard Brown Health staff has operated a COVID-19 hotline and has triaged more than 1,000 patients by phone. The organization also redirected about half of its regular visits to video- or telephone-visits in response to the pandemic.
Howard Brown Health has already launched care stations at its facilities in Englewood, Hyde Park, Lake View, Uptown and Rogers Park and plans to open West Side locations the week of April 20.
The Little Village care station is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.