Clinica Santa Maria, a Mercy Health Saint Mary’s clinic located in the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood, is offering COVID-19 testing at no cost residents of that neighborhood.
The majority of those living in that neighborhood identify as Latinx, and it’s the Latinx community in Kent County that has been the hardest hit by COVID19 according to data from the Kent County Health Department.
Doctor Martin Aramburu, one of the family physicians at Clinica Santa María, says thanks to a federal grant from the CARES ACT they are able to provide testing specifically for the Latinx community.
“In the Latino communities that are here in Grand Rapids we tend to see multigenerational homes so we have a lot of people living with Grand Rapids or other relatives and we have a lot of people that maybe have multiple families living together,”
Aramburu says quarantining from COVID-19 can make it harder for families doubling up in a single family home.
“So what often happen is that the younger, healthier people may have the virus that causes COVID-19, may have minimal or no symptoms but can spread it to vulnerable people within that home which tend to be the older populations.”
If a patient does test positive, Mercy Health will connect them with a community health worker to help deliver medical supplies and assess the patient’s need for food. Testing is available at Clinica Santa Maria from 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday via drive through or walk up.