ST PAUL, Minn. — It’s Asian Pacific Heritage Month and we’re celebrating with stories from our community.
Jenny Zhang is a resident doctor working at a Saint Paul clinic where they could see symptomatic COVID-19 patients who might not be seen elsewhere.
“This is where the patients drive up and have their intake done,” Zhang said. “We’ve got safe plexiglass for one of our workers who is definitely one of our frontline workers,” she said.
“They really took initiative and started this satellite clinic, Sibley Clinic, at United Family Medicine where we could see people who were symptomatic at this clinic,” Zhang said.
Zhang grew up in Minnesota. Now that she’s done with medical school, she jumped head first into her residency at this federally qualified health center. Its website says it’s an independent, nonprofit provider. Zhang said a large portion of their patients are uninsured or underinsured.
“I was really excited to sign up and work here and see people,” Zhang said. “Really for us, I think it’s not a sacrifice, it’s a privilege to be able to see people and work with our community and we have really wonderful patients here,” she said.
That work with the community part? Zhang shows KARE11 a personal protective equipment station in the clinic. Many of the donations came from the Chinese American community in the Twin Cities.
“That’s just been a really amazing response and something that has really warmed my heart,” she said.
Zhang said it goes to show that we’re in this together.
“We’ll take it day by day and there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Zhang said.
The clinic recently got a $100,000 donation collected from allied Minnesota Chinese organizations.