Fear, language barriers hinder immigrant contact-tracing

But only 60 of Maryland’s 1,350 contact tracers speak Spanish.And the language barriers go beyond Spanish: Minneapolis needs tracers who also speak Somali, Oromo and Hmong, Chicago needs Polish speakers and Houston’s Harris County is grappling with a population that includes Vietnamese, Chinese and Hindi speakers.But even when health officials overcome language barriers, they still must dispel the deep suspicions raised among immigrants when someone with the government calls to ask about their movements in an era of hardline immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump.“It should come as no surprise that people may be afraid to answer the phone,” said Dr. Kiran Joshi, senior medical officer at the Cook County Department of Public Health, which serves 2.4 million people in communities just outside Chicago. Some of the patients “are very forthcoming,” but others may identify people they’ve come in contacts but won’t provide a phone number, he said.Rosio-Benitez said about one-third of Harris County’s 300 contact tracers speak Spanish, but that more are needed because the area’s Hispanic population has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.Joshi said his department has few Spanish-speakers among its 25 tracers but plans to hire more, as well as people who speak Polish, Arabic and other languages.“If the caller ...