SALT LAKE CITY – The Salt Lake County Department of Health on Wednesday took the vaccine directly to those in need. Outreach teams are using two new mobile health centers to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. On Wednesday, they set up an environmental vaccination clinic in the west side of Salt Lake City.
The large recreational vehicles are equipped with medical equipment. Provincial health workers use the mobile units to set up transit clinics and reach underprivileged populations.
“I got pressure at home to get it, so I got it here,” said Michael Kauffman, who rolled up his sleeve for the shot this afternoon. “The opportunity arose, and I seized it.”
Kauffman said the pandemic gave him hut fever: the year was too quiet and nerve-racking. He heard from the neighborhood clinic and pre-registered for his vaccination.
“This is about where we did university testing during the height of the case, and who wants to get sick and die?” Kauffman said.
Now that he has had his first dose?
“I feel very relieved. I will feel better in three weeks,” he said as he felt more comfortable returning to a more normal lifestyle.
With mobile units, provincial health care workers are taking the COVID-19 vaccinations to neighborhoods and individuals who may not have the chance to get the vaccine further from home.
“Many community members feel more comfortable in their neighborhoods,” said Lorena Riffo-Jenson, spokeswoman for the Salt Lake County Department of Health.
They are setting up similar vaccination clinics somewhere in the country.
“There was a large group of our community members affected here,” Riffo-Jenson said, noting that the zip codes in the area sometimes had higher COVID-19 during the pandemic. The shots keep the nationwide vaccine line going.
“The mobile van is just here to make it so much faster for us to make it more accessible to everyone,” Riffo-Jenson said.
The more people we are vaccinated with, the faster we can get through this thing.
–Jonathan Vial, community health worker
Jonathan Vial, a community health worker working at the clinic, said: “The more people we get vaccinated, the faster we can get through this thing.”
As a member of the Spanish community, Vial said it was important that he be involved and let people know that they can trust the vaccine and the people who give it.
“I think it’s big,” he said. “There is a lot of misinformation and sometimes the minority communities do not trust some of these things, so it is important that they feel comfortable when they are here and that someone speaks to them in their own language.”
Currently, the mobile health centers are used in specific locations, giving people who have pre-registered. There are no onset vaccinations.
“It just makes it more accessible and then you can vaccinate more people,” Riffo-Jenson said.
The mobile health centers cost about $ 250,000 each. Salt Lake County bought them with federal money provided by the CARES Act.
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Jed Boal