A team of county employees and volunteers spent Tuesday going door-to-door in Allapattah handing out bags with masks, hand sanitizer and information on where residents can get tested for coronavirus.
Cathy Burgos is part of Miami-Dade County's "SURGE" team (an acronym for "Strategic Unified Response to Guideline Education") being sent to areas seeing the highest rate of infection and number of cases. She grew up in the neighborhood and knows first-hand the hardship these families face.
"It’s considered one of the hot spots. For us, it’s really important to engage this community," Burgos said. “I’m connected to the work. I’m a social worker by trade and our department provides services to these communities, so for us, it’s just an extension of our continuum of the work that we do.”
Outreach Teams Deployed in Miami-Dade COVID-19 Hot Spots to Help Flatten the Curve
More than 1,200 cases have been reported in one zip code alone — with about handful of cases on one street.
Teams are also being sent to Brownsville, Little Havana, Cutler Bay and Homestead.
"We passed out approximately 200 bags," Burgos said. "Some of the families we see we want to make sure that they all have the tools they need.”
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Juan Ramon Maldonado said several of his neighbors have come down with the virus. There’s too much freedom, too many people in groups and ignoring what health experts are saying, he said.
As part of its awareness and education campaign, Miami-Dade County on Monday opened a pop-up free testing site nearby at the Joseph Caleb Center. A visit early in the afternoon showed no one was in line.
A team of workers will head to Liberty City on Wednesday.
