Immigrants and Refugees in Allen County and Covid19 - Minutes
Conference Call hosted by Amani Family Services on March 26, 2020; 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Attendees: Amani Family Services, Wellspring Interfaith Social Services, Allen County Department of Health, Indiana State Department of Health, American Red Cross, Language Services Network, and the City of Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne Community Schools, LUNA Language Services, DSN, Multicultural Council, Fort Wayne Police Department, Cherise Dixie, El Mexicano, plus others who did not introduce themselves.
Purpose of the call: to facilitate the sharing of information on community efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus among immigrants and refugees in Allen County.
2:00 PM – Sarah Leone (Amani Family Services (Amani) Prevention Coordinator) - Brief roll call. Invited participants to send her emails to sleone@amanifamilyservices.org for any questions and to receive updates.
2:05 PM – Irene Paxia (Amani Executive Director) thanks attendees, explains the purpose, and informs everyone of the tools available at Amani’s website www.amanifamilyservices.org, as well as a newsletter with coronavirus updates. Amani continues to provide services (mostly remotely) such as therapy, case management, and substance use groups for immigrants and refugees. New clients can either call 260-484-1414 or fill out a referral form at our website.
2:10 PM - Irene asks each partner to answer 2 questions: 1. update on pandemic 2. Specific efforts so far with immigrants & refugees in Allen County.
2:15 PM - Allen County Health Department (Susan Cisney) - Updates on pandemic:
Individuals who test positive or are treated in Allen County hospitals are not considered Allen County cases unless they also reside in Allen.
The Health Department investigates when a person tests positive. People exposed to the virus are not always tested. Parkview and Lutheran are now able to test more people through the use of commercial labs. The more people that are tested, the more likely it is that there are more confirmed cases. 654 confirmed cases in Indiana with 17 deaths as of now. Over 4,000 tests submitted, Marion has the most cases and Allen County has 1 confirmed death. For people that are symptomatic but not urgently ill, they will send them home without testing as a presumptive positive. They then are required to isolate home for 14 days.
For general (non-medical) COVID-19 questions call the hotline: (260)449-4499. Anyone with severe symptoms, is encouraged to call the hospital prior to going to the ER. Service centers are currently overrun. The regular season flu has now started appearing again in Allen County. Many physician offices are asking patients to remain home if they do not show severe symptoms and use telemedicine.
The Health Department has Burmese interpreters on staff able to take calls 4 days a week Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. Nonessential Health Dept. staff are working at home or closed government buildings. Most essential staff have been reassigned to do case investigations of someone who is positive.
COVID-19 test results may take from 3-4 hours to 3-4 days, or even 5-7 or more days.
Remember social distancing and avoid shopping. Some stores are open because they carry essential supplies but the public is ordered to stay home and avoid going out. They would really like to get this word out to communities who may speak another language.
2:25 PM - City of Fort Wayne (Mary Tyndall, Public Information Officer):
The city’s website has a page with translations in different languages www.cityoffortwayne.org/covid-19.html
If you are a nonprofit providing services related to COVID-19, share that with the City of Fort Wayne by email at CD@cityoffortwayne.org.
Also you are a nonprofit in need of funding you may contact CD@cityoffortwayne.org.
2:30 PM - Indiana State Health Department (Alicia Earnest, Refugee Health Coordinator)-
Operating with the highest level of emergency. The epidemiology research center is focused on gathering data and statistics. Please, keep following the instructions put out by the state.
Impact on refugees & refugee arrivals: There is now a pause on refugee resettlement around the world, this is in place from March 19 at least until April 7. They will start reevaluating this date within the next week or so.
Resources: translation information on CDC website https://www.cdc.gov, the Core Resource Exchange www.COREsourceexchange.org, Office of Refugee Resettlement www.switchboardta.org, and Amani’s website www.amanifamilyservices.org/coronavirus
Attention: if you translate any material from the CDC or other sources, remember to remove the logos so it is clear that it’s not an official translation and provide attribution to the agency for the original content.
2:30 PM - Wellspring Interfaith Social Services (Melissa Rinehart, Executive Director) -
3 of 5 programs are closed; the food bank and the mobile food pantry are the only operational programs. Experienced 70% increase in families and 88% increase in individuals. This morning they were at Autumn Woods to distribute culturally sensitive food to refugees. Many individuals are coming with masks, very grateful, and are very mindful of the social distancing advice.
Going to have pop-up sites. Every Thursday from 9-11 they are in very diverse neighborhoods, helping families with food. They provide an interpreter. Clients do not have to show ID, all they have to do is provide name, address, and number of people in the household. As far as Melissa is aware, Wellspring is the only mobile food pantry who is currently doing this in Fort Wayne and would love to see more immigrants and refugees participate.
2:35 PM - American Red Cross (Kaleena Wright, Interim Executive Director):
A lot of services have been postponed. Still providing home-fire services, people can give Red Cross a call if they experience a fire. Red Cross is sticking to home fire and natural disaster assistance. Families who are separated by war or disaster may fall into helping patients who are affected by COVID19, though this is still in discussion. Still collecting blood, we need to keep up with national supply.
They don’t provide food delivery service to elderly: referring to organizations who are already doing this work. Many hospitals are restricting visitation, no family members can be near a COVID-19 patient.
2:45 PM - Language Service Network (Raquel Kline, Director)-
The office is closed, however providing services over the phone and video. They are helping with emergency situations. Able to translate documents from home with both contractors and volunteers. In person sessions for interpreters happen with the use of protocol and social distancing.
They have been working the Dept. of Health and City of Fort Wayne pro-bono during this time. They have partnered with El Mexicano for a couple of weeks as well so he can communicate this information to his followers. LSN is looking for volunteers, but they do still have to go through a screening process. Burmese, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese translations are the most requested translations as of now.
2:50 PM - Sarah Leone (Amani Family Services (Amani) Prevention Coordinator) - Commented on many good efforts and reminded about the Amani newsletter and webpage. She facilitated with Irene Paxia the open discussion:
Does anyone have any concerns or gaps in the efforts so far? Can we do anything more right now?
Susie (Allen County Health Department):
ALL individuals need to stay home not in congregate settings (going from apartment to apartment to visit or stay with friends/others) Please assist these community populations and the general public what this Executive Order means; only travel that is allowed is for food, medicine, medical care, gasoline. No groups can congregate, such as several children on playgrounds; children should only be outside on their own property or walking with their family group.
Alicia (State Refugee Health Coordinator): Is anyone addressing unemployment, is there a need to assist immigrants and refugees on how to apply for this? Resources:
Amani can assist immigrants/refugees fill out forms. Visit Amanifamilyservices.org and click on the “Referral” tab.
Possible information sites: Greater Fort Wayne Inc., Work One, Workforce Development.
Palermo Galindo (City of Fort Wayne Liaison) is going to send Amani the resource for helping with unemployment.
What if an apartment complex with a large population of immigrants gets infected with COVID-19?
From Susie Cisney (Allen County Health Department): The DOH would assist the complex management with working out a plan for a large scale isolation; individuals testing positive are provided with an Isolation Order which requires them to isolate at home unless critically ill; further Quarantine instructions would be given to the household members.
Alicia (State Refugee Health Coordinator) is not aware of any plan that the state has that would address this issue specifically.
3:00PM – Ric Robles (Police Officer of Fort Wayne PD): He visited many Hispanic and Burmese businesses today and there seems to be no sense of priority. There is not an understanding of what is going on and the urgency of staying home. When at George’s International there were no masks or no sense of social distancing. The police are not going to arrest people when they are doing necessary tasks. Ric believes this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Alicia (State Refugee Health Coordinator): The County can remove their license for operating if nonessential. They are still trying to convince the population of what is going on. There needs to be more education throughout the community.
There remains a concern for businesses that are still operating, as the public is still going on trips that are unnecessary. Does Ric Robles (Police Officer of Fort Wayne PD) have any suggestions? Ric suggests that we use media or other mediums, having our leaders deliver point messages is necessary because we are going to go into a full crisis. If we are not out there aggressively trying to educate the community, it is going to get much worse.
Fernando Zapari (El Mexicano Newspaper) started informing the community about COVID19 two months ago, a podcast on a daily basis, about 25,000 views this week . Always use CDC and Dept. of Health resources. We need the community leaders to have a conversation to help the community.
3:15PM – Sarah Leone (Amani Prevention Coordinator) will send resource links in our newsletter this week.
Shannon Norris (Amani Victim Care Manager) informed that Amani is working on telephone groups (just like today) and we are going to be giving the community instructions regarding COVID19. Our hope is to have this started by Monday.
3:20PM – Ewelina Connolly (Amani Clinical Director): Is there any assistance to help families with eLearning?
FWCS is not an eLearning district, Emily Swartz-Keirns (FWCS ELL Coordinator) is meeting to discuss how to help families and provide resources to help students whose parents may not speak English. Amani will reach out directly to EACS about eLearning.
Thank you everyone for your participation. This is not one-person’s problem and not one agency’s problem; we are all in this together.