Mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic for agricultural workers in Santa Cruz County
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION)
UPDATE 1/3/21 6:00 p.m. As of today, 486 people have been vaccinated. Health officials have allotted 500 more doses for Friday.
Thomas Am Rhein, Chairman of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau and Strawberry grower says that this process was pretty impromptu.
"We were fortunate to have the opportunity to receive an offer from Dominican Hospital to work with then to do a farm worker clinic with a fair number of vaccine this week. And we just got word late last week and so we had to work on it during the weekend," says Am Rhein
Most importantly, health officials wanted to ensure that the vaccination process is accessible and easy to understand to erase any fears of the actual safety of the vaccine and government agencies obtaining their personal information.
Am Rhein says that they are currently in the process of creating an ambassador program to provide more trust and information for workers.
Miguel Montaño, a farm worker for Mendoza Farms, says that he believes that connecting with the agricultural community by proactively sending health workers to the fields is the best option.
" I think the most important thing for me is to have people coming out to the fields to talk with farm workers and tell them the good and the bad of the vaccine so that we understand," says Montaño.
After today's successful turnout, Dominican Hospital says that they will reevaluate and discuss having more vaccination clinics for farm workers.
PREVIOUS STORY: Dominican Hospital is partnering with the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau and California Strawberry Commission to host the first every mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic for agricultural workers in Santa Cruz County.
The clinic will be on February 3, 2021 from noon to 1 p.m., located at Casserly Hall in Watsonville.
Health officials at Domican Hospital say they anticipate vaccinating approximately 1,000 local agricultural workers in a span of two days.
They add that members of the Latinx community heavily represent the agriculture industry in Santa Cruz County, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinx and other minority groups are not represented equally among COVID-19 cases in the U.S. This is because of long-standing systemic health and social inequities.
According to the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency, as of February 2, 2021, 54.35% of COVID-19 cases countywide are within the Latinx community.
Workers who will be vaccinated tomorrow were selected through the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau and have been prescheduled. There will be bilingual staff at the clinic who can answer any questions.
