Underserved communities, seniors draw state priority for COVID vaccinations

By Tim Mastro
Posted 3/8/21

WILMINGTON — As part of Delaware’s COVID-19 vaccine equity initiatives, the state is attempting to hone in on underserved communities who do not have the most reliable internet access, or …

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Underserved communities, seniors draw state priority for COVID vaccinations

Posted

WILMINGTON — As part of Delaware’s COVID-19 vaccine equity initiatives, the state is attempting to hone in on underserved communities who do not have the most reliable internet access, or in some cases, no internet at all.

Dan Feehan, the director of Vault Health’s vaccination program, said the state uses community organizations, nonprofits who know who the most vulnerable individuals are who need access to vaccine, to prioritize these persons.

Vault, one of Delaware’s original COVID-19 testing partners and now a vaccine partner, creates a registration process, without making it public, to ensure these Delawareans will receive a vaccine appointment.

“So it’s not an up-for-grabs approach like you see in other parts of the country, that tends to favor the ones with the quickest fingers at the end of the day,” Mr. Feehan said. “That’s something that’s very important to us with Vault because our larger mission is to increase healthcare access and equity.”

Vault has set up two semi-permanent vaccination sites upstate geared toward these seniors. Mr. Feehan said Vault hopes to increase these sites as supply permits in the near future.

“We have the capacity to do more but allocations have been greatly challenged,” Mr. Feehan said. “I would love to come as many times a week as the state wants us to. We’ll come back as often as we are welcomed.”

From Feb. 8 to Feb 26, the state vaccinated 1,332 Delawareans in high-rises and senior-living community events, according to director of the Delaware Division of Public Health Dr. Karly Rattay.

This past week, the state held similar vaccination events at Rose Hill Community Center, Newark Senior Center, Living Grace Worship Cathedral, Nanticoke Senior Center, Seeds of Greatness Church and Maranatha Church. It also hosted clinics in several senior apartment complexes such as Peach Circle and McLane Gardens in Smyrna as well as Compton, Herlihy, Ingleside, Terry, Maplewood, Parkview and Luther Towers in Wilmington.

“These efforts to bring balance to the distribution of vaccine within our state are increasing and will continue to increase,” Dr. Rattay said. “We’ve reached these more than 1,300 individuals through smaller clinics and targeted efforts in harder-to-serve communities.”

These diversity efforts are ongoing as 168,542 doses of the 268,424 total administered in Delaware have been to the Non-Hispanic White demographic — 63% of the total according to the DPH’s vaccine tracker. Non-Hispanic Blacks have received 23,779 doses (9%), 6,649 (2%) have gone to Hispanics/Latinos and 6,390 (2%) have been administered to Asians/Pacific Islanders, as of Saturday at 11:59 p.m.

Distribution in the Black community has been rising slightly over the last month, when it was at 5% in the first week of February and was at 7% three weeks ago. Hispanics/Latinos and Asians/Pacific Islanders distribution stats have stayed stagnant at 2% for the past month, however.

An additional 27,626 doses, or 10% of the total, have been recorded as going to “Another/Multiple” races on the vaccine tracker. The remaining 35,438 (13%) is reported as “Unknown” in the state’s immunization information system DelVAX.

The unknown have decreased in the past month when it was at 22% after Gov. Carney issued an emergency order in early February for vaccination providers to report complete demographic information to DelVAX within 24 hours of administering a vaccine. Failure to comply with these data reporting requirements may result in fines for providers and reductions in vaccine allocation.

Mr. Feehan, a former acting Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Obama Administration who worked on the U.S. response to the Ebola Virus, said viewing this data allows Vault to know who it is reaching. If the numbers are increasing, it means Vault’s communication with community leaders is encouraging confidence to sign up, which then has a ripple effect.

“There’s a function of confidence being built in,” Mr. Feehan said. “Every time someone has a positive experience — their registration process was easy, they had little to no wait on-site, they were treated well by a nurse or a doctor throughout the process — that has an impact too.”

“This should be something that is no cost to you and this should be as easy as possible for you, your neighbors and your loved ones,” Mr. Feehan added. “We’re excited on just how much we’ve done in Delaware so far but are so excited for the possibility to do more along the way.”

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