The Pandemic Is Hitting Hawaii s Filipino Community Hard - Honolulu Civil Beat
The virus has sickened Filipinos disproportionately and led to widespread job losses.
When Jenny Delos Santos got her COVID-19 positive test result in April, it was only the latest hit in what was already a terrible year.
Santos had been on leave from her job as a news assistant mourning the deaths of her two adult children prior to the pandemic when she found out she was laid off in late March. She was already sick, and got tested for coronavirus that same day.
By the time she got her positive test result more than a week later, Santos no longer had her Honolulu Star-Advertiser health insurance. As it became harder to breathe and her cough worsened, she hallucinated, seeing angels on her husband’s shoulder. She later learned hallucinations are, for some, a side effect of the virus. Despite how sick she felt, Santos didn’t want to see a doctor and risk adding to her existing medical debt.