Marshallese Community In Iowa Struggles With COVID-19
One community leader told a local paper that three Marshallese people have died of the virus in Dubuque County.
The Marshallese community in Dubuque County, Iowa has been hit hard by coronavirus, according to the county’s local newspaper Telegraph Herald.
Irene Maun Sigrah, a Marshallese community health worker, told the paper that she and her family contracted the virus and three Marshallese Dubuque residents have died.
“There are more in the hospitals,” she told the newspaper. “The ICUs are full of us.”
Civil Beat analyzed state-level COVID-19 data last week and found eight states — mostly on the West Coast — where Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders face high rates of contracting the virus or dying from it. Iowa wasn’t on our list because the state combines Pacific Islanders with Asians in its official data.
No state yet breaks down which specific Pacific communities are being affected, although the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has called for more disaggregated data in Hawaii.
Click here to read the full story from the Telegraph Herald.
