Kent County Health Department Co-Sponsoring Community COVID-19 Testing Event

The Kent County Health Department (KCHD) is partnering with
the Black Impact Collaborative and LINC UP to provide a free COVID-19 community testing day on
Monday, June 29, 2020. The event will be held from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Gallery at LINC UP located at
1167 Madison S.E. in Grand Rapids.
“We know that COVID-19 has been disproportionately impacting the African American and Latinx
communities, so the Black Impact Collaborative wanted to partner with Kent County to make sure that
African Americans and Latinxs in our community have the opportunity to get tested,” said Kent County
Commissioner Robert Womack. “This is such a needed resource for our community to allow anyone to
get tested and we are thankful that the County put this testing day together.”
In Kent County, members of the Latinx community account for 39.4 perfect of the COVID-19 cases while
comprising 10 percent of the population and African Americans have 19.25 percent of the cases but make
up 10 percent of the population.
“Our data is showing that 17 percent of our COVID-19 positive cases are located in the 49507-zip code
and yet only 6 percent of Kent County’s population resides in this area,” says Dr. Adam London, Director,
Kent County Health Department. “This type of data continues to inform our response to COVID-19 and
ensures our resources are accessible to the most impacted neighborhoods.”
The Kent County Health Department will continue working to address the racial and ethnic health
disparities by collaborating with community partners to offer testing in areas that are showing a higher
prevalence of positive cases.
“We are excited to work with community partners like the Kent County Health Department, who
recognize that racial health disparities exist and are actively working to address them by changing their
practices,” said Vincent Thurman, Communications Manager at LINC UP. “COVID-19 has further revealed how stark
these disparities are and how much needs to change. Partnering with KCHD is a great step
forward to improving equity in healthcare. The data shows that Black and Brown communities are at a
higher risk for contracting COVID-19 and we are happy to have free tasting available to residents in our
neighborhoods.”
Anyone 6 months of age or above can get tested. Pre-registration for this event is encouraged by going
online or calling (616) 632-7200 but walk-in testing is available.