Health & Fitness
Louisville Women Recognized For Leading The Fight Against Coronavirus In Hispanic Community
"Women, as we know, often take on the role of caregiver and there have been a crushing number of needs throughout the pandemic,".
March 1, 2022
Mayor Greg Fischer today was joined by Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage, associate medical director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW); Dr. Maria Nota, pediatrician with Norton Community Medical Group – Germantown, community medical director with the Institute for Health Equity, a part of Norton Healthcare and member of the Louisville Metro Board of Health; and Karina Barillas, executive director of La Casita Center, to provide an update on COVID-19 and observe Women’s History Month.
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Mayor Greg Fischer today was joined by Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage, associate medical director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW); Dr. Maria Nota, pediatrician with Norton Community Medical Group – Germantown, community medical director with the Institute for Health Equity, a part of Norton Healthcare and member of the Louisville Metro Board of Health; and Karina Barillas, executive director of La Casita Center, to provide an update on COVID-19 and observe Women’s History Month.
"Women, as we know, often take on the role of caregiver and there have been a crushing number of needs throughout the pandemic,” Mayor Fischer said. “When you think about children, aging parents, our vulnerable population, ill family members – societally, at least here in America, most of the responsibility as caretaker falls on women.”
Find out what's happening in Louisvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"Women, as we know, often take on the role of caregiver and there have been a crushing number of needs throughout the pandemic,” Mayor Fischer said. “When you think about children, aging parents, our vulnerable population, ill family members – societally, at least here in America, most of the responsibility as caretaker falls on women.”
Mayor Fischer recognized the impact the pandemic has had on women, while also celebrating several women who have played an enormous role in leading the city through these perilous times.
Mayor Fischer recognized the impact the pandemic has had on women, while also celebrating several women who have played an enormous role in leading the city through these perilous times.
Along with the latest data, Dr. Hartlage also went over the new COVID-19 community level guidance released by the CDC last week.
“These new guidelines from the CDC places more emphasis on the burden felt by hospitals and an emphasis on preventing severe infections, preventing hospitalizations and preventing deaths with the rationale that vaccines and treatments are now widely available to help mitigate those risks,” Dr. Hartlage said.
Currently, Jefferson County is still considered in the high COVID-19 community level category.
At the level “high,” the CDC recommends to:
Dr. Hartlage said with case counts and the positivity rate trending down, it appears Jefferson County is close from moving to the red (high level) to the yellow (medium level).
“I think it’s important to note that the first recommendation on all levels of the CDC’s new categories is to stay up-to-date with your COVID vaccine,” Dr. Hartlage said. “Even if COVID numbers go down, we will continue to see new variants until we have global vaccine equity. We will continue to see some percentage of people requiring hospitalization, and even if the numbers are really small there will continue to be deaths from COVID.”
Hispanic women recognized for efforts during COVID-19 pandemic
During the first day of Women’s History Month, Mayor Fischer recognized two women who have played essential roles in the fight against COVID-19 in the Hispanic community.
Karina Barillas leads La Casita Center, an organization that stepped up at the beginning of the pandemic to help provide accurate information about COVID-19 to non-English speaking communities.
“Creating and building an infrastructure where we were passing on information through translators and trusted media was a wonderful strategy,” Barillas said. “We realized the importance of putting messages out there along with faces and voices that the community recognized.”
La Casita Center has helped distribute masks, COVID-19 tests and more than 1,300 vaccines. It has also helped more than 1,800 families affected by COVID-19 navigate the healthcare system and gain access to food, medicine and family care.
“I can say that one of the silver linings of this pandemic is the community partnerships that have been created. Not only within the Latinx/Hispanic communities, but with other organizations across Louisville as well,” Barillas said.
Dr. Nota has also led the way by working to increase healthcare access to minority communities and by addressing misinformation about the vaccine.
“I can tell you that on top of the COVID-19 pandemic we have another pandemic. The pandemic of misinformation,” Dr. Nota said.
Dr. Nota, a pediatrician, said most of the patients she sees are of the Latinx or Hispanic origin. She said education and bringing vaccinations to Latinx and Hispanic communities has been instrumental when it comes to increasing the rate.
“I’m really proud to say that my Latinx community has done great with the vaccination rate. When the vaccines first rolled out, we had a gap of about 13% between the white population and the Latinx people,” Dr. Nota said. “Over the vaccine rollout, the gap narrowed and by last month that gap has closed.”
Here are the key COVID-19 data metrics for March 1, 2022:
Hospitalization data:
Vaccines:
View this week’s COVID-19 briefing with public health officials here.
This press release was produced by the City of Louisville. The views expressed here are the author’s own.