COVID-19: Healthy Oregon (Oregon Saludable): Together We Can (Juntos Podemos) Phase II

The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that causes the severe respiratory illness COVID-19 is the worst health crisis that the United States has faced in a century. Although this highly contagious virus has infected millions of Americans already, the disease burdens are disproportionately born by historically underserved populations such as Latinx communities. In Oregon, 13% of the population that is Latinx represents approximately 25.7% of COVID-19 cases and are burdened with more than twice the cases per 100,000 individuals compared to non-Hispanic Oregonians (10,677 versus 4,616, respectively). Furthermore, only 54.9% of eligible Latinx Oregonians are vaccinated compared to the 76.2% statewide vaccination rate. An urgent need exists to reach Oregon's Latinx community to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission and increase vaccine acceptance. The overall goal of this study is to implement a Promotores de Salud behavioral health intervention to increase the reach, access, uptake, and impact of testing and vaccination in Latinx communities in Oregon. This project will fully integrate with the National institutes of Health (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) consortium and its Coordination and Data Collection Center (CDCC). The study team will add testing venues based on feedback from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and our county and community partners to test if a "partner-optimized venue placement strategy" yields more Latinx individuals tested than placement of sites based upon residential density used in the ongoing testing in Phase I of this study (Clinical Trial ID: NCT04793464). In addition, evaluation of the Promotores de Salud intervention held during testing events will test whether culturally competent education results in greater use of strategies that reduce transmission of COVID-19 at the community and individual level and increases the number of individuals who choose to be vaccinated, as a function of fidelity of the intervention. Over time, this project will help communities institutionalize optimal local testing frameworks supported by University of Oregon laboratory facilities for testing capacity, technical support for testing logistics, and collection of data on health behaviors, testing rates, and sustainability. The resulting structures and systems will be poised for future scale-up to other vulnerable communities and/or for other public health purposes.