WACO, Texas — Community leaders gathered Thursday and discussed current, as well as the aftermath, COVID-19 could leave on local communities of color.
The leaders mentioned how these communities can be disproportionally impacted by the disease and advised the community to double down on safety measures like social distancing and face masks.
"For the minority community, with everybody, but particularly because there is a bigger hit, I think you have to take more effort on these things and do more to protect your health," Dr. Floyd Barry with Family Health Center said.
Mayor Pro Tem Andrea Barefield noted during the town hall while she addressed small business questions, that access to funding has always been lesser than anglo counterparts, but it is especially harder during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also spoke on a variety of other things that impact minority-owned small businesses.
"We can overcome. But we're going to just have to utilize the things that we have, get with our resources, expand our networks and not just during this crisis, but post-crisis and then the aftermath of the crisis," Barefield said.
Also addressed during the town hall was COVID-19 testing, xenophobia amidst the coronavirus and questions related to the immigration community.
Near the end of the meeting, McLennan County Commissioner Patricia Chisolm-Miller mentioned that it is important to continue the conversation on COVID-19's impact.
"We have to come up with solutions for the issues that have been highlighted by COVID-19 because a fence is only as strong as its weakest link," Chisolm-Miller said.
This article is a brief overview of the town hall meeting. You can watch it in full here.
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