The new vaccination data from the city, which the health commission plans to publish every Monday, are set out according to the race and ethnicity of recipients, their environment and age group, as well as the date on which the doses were administered. Marty Martinez, head of the city’s health and human services, discussed a vaccine round during a virtual roundtable discussion on Tuesday, describing the city’s strategy to ensure the vaccines are accessible to everyone in Boston, especially residents of Latino, who suffered disproportionately under COVID. -19 infections, and Black residents, who are overrepresented in COVID-19 deaths.
Martinez said the differences in neighborhood vaccination data are partly due to Massachusetts’ current fitness requirements. The vaccines are only available to people who qualify under Phase 1 of the state’s plan, such as health workers and first responders, plus 65 and older or with two or more specific medical conditions. He said the city will continue to monitor the data to identify gaps in access to or acceptance of vaccines.
‘If you know Boston, you know neighborhoods [and] “You kind of know where there are a large number of health workers, and a large number of first responders,” Martinez said Tuesday.
“At the moment, our neighborhoods that have been hit the hardest are also the neighborhoods that are vaccinated the lowest by the population,” he added. ‘So we really want to make sure that the trend is more about who is eligible – not about who will take the vaccine [and who’s not]. ”
As on Feb. 23, according to the health commission, nearly 96,000 first doses were administered to Boston residents, which is about 16 percent of the population older than 16 years old. Bostonians 75 and older are vaccinated according to the highest percentage of the city’s population, with about 60,700 doses per 100,000 people.
The neighborhoods with the lowest inoculation rates are mostly black and Latino populations. East Boston and Mattapan have the lowest rates at approximately 10,403 and 10,561 first doses per 100,000 residents, respectively, followed by the 02121 and 02125 zip codes in Dorchester (10,637 first doses per 100,000), which Grove Hall, Uphams Corner and Jones Hill. .
By comparison, in West Roxbury, which is about 70 per cent white, the vaccination rate is the city’s highest with just over 20,000 first doses per 100,000 people. The South End and Jamaica Plain are also among the neighborhoods with the highest rates at 19,900 and 18,900 first doses per 100,000, respectively.
The data show that white residents in Boston are vaccinated the highest percentage (16,215 first doses per 100,000), based on their percentage of the population. This is followed by Asian residents (15,115 first doses per 100,000) and black residents (14,089 first doses per 100,000).
Latino residents have by far the lowest vaccination rate in the city, with 8,086 first doses per 100,000 people.
Alexandra Oliver-Dávila, executive director of Sociedad Latina and a member of Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s COVID-19 task force on health inequalities, said at Tuesday’s round table that the relatively low vaccination rate for Latino ” leads to many issues speaks’ ‘, including many Latino immigrants’ fears and mistrust of the government, which has worsened under former President Donald Trump’s administration.
“You have to be smart, you have to be online, you have to know how to navigate things,” she said of the challenges of booking a vaccination appointment. Language is also a barrier, she said, and so is transportation. “Not everyone can get anywhere in the city,” she added.
There are 18 vaccination sites that are open to the public within the city limits. The city’s goal, Martinez said, is to increase the number to 25.
Martinez said the city follows a square approach. The first part of the strategy relies on mass vaccination sites, such as the Reggie Lewis Center at Roxbury Community College, where half of the appointments are set aside for community groups serving immigrants and residents of color. The city also supports clinics targeting specific priority groups, smaller neighborhoods and mobile vaccination units that will deliver shots to the most vulnerable residents.
On Friday, Boston Medical Emergency Services will launch a mobile vaccination program in a housing authority building in Roxbury, Martinez said. The first of at least three teams he hopes will bring the vaccines to the home-based and hard-to-reach area. The city is also planning a clinic in Mattapan on Monday that will serve essential workers. Martinez said the city hopes to also open a second clinic for essential workers in Dorchester.
“We believe we need all four of these strategies to vaccinate in a fair way,” Martinez said.[and] to ensure that we have a large number of people who are vaccinated. ”
Deanna Pan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @DDpan.