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LA Will Provide Free Mobile Coronavirus Testing To All Public Housing Residents
Mayor Garcetti announces mobile testing at HACLA sites. (Photo Courtesy Mayor Garcetti)
Over the next two months, the city of L.A. will bring free mobile coronavirus testing to all 15 public housing locations, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced this afternoon.
The tests will be available to all public housing residents free of charge – if that's you, you can sign up in advance for an appointment at coronavirus.lacity.org/HACLAtesting.
The idea behind the program is to enable residents who lack access to reliable transportation to get to testing sites, which are not always accessible via public transit.
The initiative is also a response to the fact that low-income communities of color are experiencing a disproportionate share of the county's COVID-19 infections and deaths.
LAist Reporter Caroline Chapman reported on this in May:
A study released by the L.A. County Department of Public Health looked at COVID-19 infections and deaths adjusted by age, and found that communities of color — and poorer county residents in general — are experiencing a disproportionate share of both.
Those suffering the highest rates of infections and deaths are people of color: African Americans continue to die at a pace that exceeds their share of the population, in L.A. and elsewhere. An even higher death rate exists for the county's Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
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Latinos now make up almost half the COVID-19 cases in L.A. County, according to the new county data. And while their death rate still appears lower than their population share, adjusted by age, Latinos' death rate is the third-highest.
Read her full story here.
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