Filipinos in Hawaii have very high Covid death rate

SCREENSHOT

Hawaii’s health department reports 23% of the patients who died from COVID-19 in the state identified as Filipino. Filipinos make up 16% of Hawaii’s population.

Observers interviewed by KITV’s Annalisa Burgos said Filipinos may be hesitant to seek help for fear of not being able to work to support their families should they test positive for Covid.

In addition, health care providers do not have a good picture of how many Filipinos have been vaccinated. It would help front-liners, they said, if disaggregated data show vaccination rates by race, so that there could be targeted outreach to groups like Filipinos, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

However, volunteers with the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu told KITV that more people seem to be overcoming their vaccine hesitancy since the rise of the Delta variant of Covid.

For a year now FilCom Cares has been providing COVID-19 testing, vaccines, and now boosters in churches and neighborhoods.

Funding for staff and educational materials in other languages to fight misinformation on social media, volunteers said.

Vaccines are available once a month at the Filipino Community Center. The next session is scheduled on Oct 21 from 9am to 1pm.

Church sites rotate and include West Oahu Christian Church in Waipahu on Oct 1, 22 and 23; Our Lady of Sorrows in Wahiawa on Oct. 9; and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ewa Beach on Oct 17.

For more information, call (808) 300-5548 or visit filcomcares.org. Assistance in Ilocano and Tagalog is available.