Addressing COVID-19 Disparities and Advancing Health Equity in the State of Utah - As the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Utah in 2020, racial and ethnic minority communities began to shoulder some of its heaviest burdens: infection, hospitalization, economic distress, and death, mirroring national trends. Utah’s rural communities were placed at higher-risk facing geographic isolation, chronic disease burdens, and limited access to resources and support. In Utah, COVID-19 exacerbated existing racial and ethnic health disparities, exposed health inequities, and demanded focus on advancing health equity overall. The Utah Department of Health’s (UDOH) Office of Health Disparities, State Office of Rural Health, and Office of American Indian/Alaska Native Health Affairs will engage in state-wide agency and local partnerships and collaborations to (1) address COVID-19 health disparities in Utah among racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities and (2) build capacity and infrastructure for future public health emergencies in public health systems to advance health equity in Utah. Together, UDOH and key partners like local health departments, community-based organizations, tribes, tribal organizations, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations will address three of the four overarching strategies. Activities for Strategy 2, will focus on improving data systems and the collection, analysis, use, and reporting of racial, ethnic, and rural health data for COVID-19 prevention and control. Partner activities will be coordinated to conduct COVID-19 data assessments and standardization for vulnerable populations, conduct a social determinants of health population survey to contextualize COVID-19-related data, build rural health systems infrastructure for data collection to support COVID-19 prevention and control, and perform a Health Equity Data Analyses (HEDA) focused on COVID-19 to inform policy changes. Activities for Strategy 3, will be aimed at building and expanding public health systems and community infrastructure to support COVID-19 prevention among socially vulnerable populations. Partner efforts will be complementary and include increasing local capacity for health equity positions and activities, convening county-based coalitions to address access for vulnerable rural communities, supporting rural hospitals value-based care, developing coordination processes with tribes and tribal organizations, building community health worker workforce infrastructure and capacity, and expanding public health infrastructure and capacity to address COVID-19 health disparities and advance health equity. Activities for Strategy 4, will foster collaborations among partners to build capacity for advancing health equity and addressing social determinants of health related to COVID-19. Partner projects will develop community capacity to work with vulnerable groups who were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 among local health departments, vulnerable rural community organizations, tribal and Urban Indian organizations and service providers, community health workers, and state and local stakeholders for health equity. Activities will culminate in local health equity conferences to address sustainability of activities, infrastructure, and capacity. By the end of the project period, UDOH expects improvements in outcomes including (1) reduced COVID-19 health disparities; (2) improved/increased testing and contact tracing among populations at higher risk and that are underserved, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural communities; and (3) improved state and local health department capacity and services to prevent and control COVID-19 infection or transmission among populations at higher risk and that are underserved, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural communities. These advancements will be paramount to leveraging COVID-19 activities, resources, and capacity into sustainable infrastructure to advance health equity in Utah.
