Walgreens COVID-19 vaccine effort seeks to overcome obstacles to reach hard-hit residents - El Paso Times
Armando Mejia received his Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine Friday morning.
Mejia, a 24-year-old oil field worker, said he is the last in his family to receive the vaccine.
"Hopefully, it works," Mejia said. "I'm tired. I want to get back to normal. I'm putting my whole hope in it."
Mejia was helped thanks to an effort by Walgreens to reach segments of the population hit hard by the pandemic and help them overcome obstacles to getting vaccinated.
At first, Mejia said he didn't think he was going to get a vaccine. But his aunt told him to go to the Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 14600 Horizon Blvd., where Walgreens was hosting a vaccination clinic for communities that have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data from the city of El Paso, of the more than 131,000 cases reported locally, Hispanics make up 92% of those infected.
More than 2,400 people have died in El Paso County since the pandemic hit the region.
Buy Photo Anais Martinez, a pharmacist, prepares a COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed Friday, April 9, 2021, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Horizon City.
(Photo: Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times)For Mejia, the pandemic struck his whole family.
"I had uncles and cousins getting it," Mejia said, adding that one of his uncles was hospitalized.
Mejia wasn't spared from infection, either, and continues to live with difficulty breathing, a complication for some recovering from COVID-19.
"When I started to have troubles with taste and smell, I started going down," Mejia said. "I started getting better, but I kept having issues."
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Two weeks from his vaccination is when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will consider Mejia to be fully vaccinated. The same rule applies for those who received their second dose in a two-series vaccination.
"Try to get vaccinated so we can do the best we can to make our community safer, and just follow the instructions," Mejia said. "We can get out of this together. We're closer to getting out. So, let's try to make it the right way."
Vaccination effort reaches out to Blacks, Hispanics
The vaccination equity clinic, which also was held at St. Mark Catholic Church, 11700 Pebble Hills Blvd., was part of a three-day event held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to help reach Blacks and Hispanics involved with their churches.
By the middle of the event's second day, on Friday, the clinic at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church was on track to administer 2,500 one-shot doses. Together, both churches were set to provide 5,000 vaccines total to residents in communities in which the population is roughly 87% Hispanic.
"Vaccine hesitancy is still a big issue in the community," said Ahmed Jallad, a Walgreens health care supervisor.
Buy Photo Members of the community who were vaccinated Friday, April 9, 2021, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Horizon City sit in an area for observation for any side effects under the watchful eyes of an image of Pope Francis.
(Photo: Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times)Health care workers at the clinic do not ask about a patient's residential legal status, but some form of identification is required to ensure the registered person is actually the one receiving the dose.
Saturday was to be the last day of the clinic. While appointments for both sites were full, some walk-in vaccinations were possible Saturday, Walgreens representatives said.
"We're really committed to reaching underserved communities, people who otherwise might not have access to the vaccine, for any number of reasons. It could be transportation, it could be lack of information," said Fiona Ortiz, a Walgreens media relations director. "So, we really depend on community partners like these two churches that have been hosting these clinics to help us reach their communities."
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In addition to the churches, the Western Rio Grande Region Colonias Program — funded by the Texas A&M College of Architecture — has provided communities in outlying areas of El Paso County with information and resources to better weather the pandemic.
"We leverage those community partners to get the word out," Jallad said. "They advocate for health in the community."
One of those community partners is the El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank, which operates from 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday at Holy Spirit Catholic Church.
For more information on COVID-19 vaccinations, visit epcovidvaccine.com.
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