Most countries are still vaccinating only the elderly and healthcare professionals, but a city in the United States hard hit by the coronavirus is already offering doses for everyone aged 18 and over.
© Joseph Prezioso
A woman is inoculated with the Modern Covid-19 vaccine at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island on February 13, 2021
© Joseph Prezioso
About 700 doses of Caccine Moderna Covid-19 were expected to be administered at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island on February 13, 2021
Central Falls – with a population of 20,000 on Rhode Island – is home to a large Hispanic population, many of whom are undocumented migrants.
© Joseph Prezioso
People leave after receiving vaccines at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island on February 13, 2021
The city is one of the most densely populated locations in the United States and one of the areas of Rhode Island most affected by the pandemic.
The government of the small East Coast state recommends that vaccines be given only to high-risk groups, such as frontline workers and people over 75.
But Central Falls is following its own path, opening vaccines for all adults.
“Everyone who lives or works here is a priority,” Mayor Maria Rivera told AFP during a mass vaccination campaign on Saturday.
The pandemic has spread like wildfire in the central community of Central Falls, where it is common for several families to live under one roof.
The city is made up of 66% Latinos and 13% Blacks.
Central Falls recorded the highest rate of positive cases and hospitalizations in Rhode Island.
Gallery: Residents in the nursing home that was the site of the first outbreak of COVID-19 in the USA are fully vaccinated after receiving the second dose more than 10 months after the first case of COVID-19 (INSIDER)
More than 3,500 cases have been reported, with 21 deaths and 190 hospitalizations in January.
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The cost of healthcare was also increased by an economic one.
“At the beginning of Covid … there were so many residents who lost their jobs and they had no money and could not apply for benefits,” recalls Rivera.
When vaccines became available in December, the city offered injections for those over 75, then over 65, before reducing the age limit to 50 and then reducing it to 18 in the past few weeks.
– ‘The right thing to do –
“If we don’t solve the problem, where is the problem, we will simply continue to spread the disease,” said Rivera.
The city was preparing to administer about 700 doses at Central Falls High School on Saturday.
Mayor Rivera’s team has gone from door to door to ensure that residents have all the information they need, including in Spanish and Cape Verdean Portuguese.
“This was the first vaccination for the general public, probably the first in the country,” said Eugenio Fernandez Jr, founder of Asthenis, a pharmacy that serves low-income neighborhoods.
When Suzanne Wallace, a practicing nurse, learned of Central Fall’s problems, she knew that she had to come as a volunteer to administer injections.
“It seemed like it was the right thing to do,” she told AFP.
Dozens of residents sat in chairs more than two meters away inside the school’s gym, waiting to be observed after receiving the photo.
Angelica Romero, 30, was among the residents who received the injection.
“I was too scared to come, to be honest with you,” said Romero, whose father had just spent three months in the hospital with coronavirus. Her mother had registered her for the shooting.
“We are really looking forward to having a really safe environment as much as we can for him,” she told AFP.
strs-pdh / to
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