Rutgers researchers translate coronavirus updates for minority communities

The Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research is working to keep immigrant and minority communities in New Jersey up-to-date with the latest coronavirus disease (COVID-19) information through a social media campaign using their languages, according to an article on Rutgers Today.

Research assistants at the Institute take updates from the state's COVID-19 Information Hub as well as Gov. Phil Murphy's (D-N.J.) press conferences and translates the information into Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Tagalog and Spanish, according to the article.

The Institute posts these updates to specific Twitter accounts and hashtags for each of the five languages, which allows users to monitor the latest updates, according to the article. The accounts have experienced an increase in traffic and have gotten attention from organizations that work with minorities as well as Murphy's office.

Approximately 31 percent of New Jerseyans speak a language other than English at home. The COVID-19 outbreak has also shown signs of disproportionately affecting minority communities, according to the article.

"The Institute for Health is proud to be able to respond to this public health crisis in this way and promote social justice by ensuring communities have access to critical information," said Institute Director XinQi Dong, according to the article.

Individuals looking to receive New Jersey's COVID-19 updates in one of these languages can look up #IFHTranslates on Twitter to find the five accounts, according to the article.