SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- COVID-19 outreach in the Latino community is getting a boost after San Diego County partnered with promotoras to help with contact tracing. Promotoras, which literally means promoters, are bilingual community health workers.
The goal is to lower the high number of COVID-19 cases among Latinos in the county. Latinos and Hispanics make up almost 63% of COVID-19 cases in the county, but Latinos make up only 34% of the population.
The promotoras are members of the communities where they will be working. The county announced the partnership at the beginning of August and now the promotoras are out in the community helping with contact tracing.
The promotoras will work in underserved communities and Latino neighborhoods.
ABC 10News spoke to two promotoras working with South Bay Community Services. They are getting ready to start on September 1st. In total, 17 promotoras with the organization will start on that day. They've all received hours of training and are certified contact tracers.
The promotoras will have the task of reaching out to the close contacts of positive COVID-19 cases. The contact is made over the phone or via email and text and the promotoras will ask things about testing and if they're presenting any symptoms.
The county's partnership also includes promotoras from San Diego State and will include promotoras that speak other languages like Tagalog and Arabic.
