This Easter Sunday, the worship service at First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries will be live-streamed to their more than 4,000 members via the Internet. But the COVID-19 vaccine shots will happen in person.
The church is offering up its full-size gymnasium to a team from George Mason University, which plans to administer 350 shots on Easter Sunday. The event is one of the first mobile vaccination clinics to take place in eastern Prince William County -- part of an effort to make the vaccine more accessible to Black and Hispanic populations that have been hard hit by COVID-19.
Senior Pastor Rev. Luke Torian, who is also a state delegate for the 52nd District, said he chose Easter Sunday for a vaccination clinic because it seemed a like a good day to celebrate a step toward overcoming the now yearlong pandemic.
Del. Luke Torian
“So now, when people are asked when they got their shots, they can proudly say, ‘We got them on Easter Sunday,” Torian said in an interview this week.
The Easter Sunday clinic will follow two others set for Thursday, April 1. Pharmacies working with the state will give 2,000 inoculations at First Mount Zion Baptist Church and another 1,000 at Todos Supermarket, 139045 Jefferson Davis Highway.
What’s more, First Mount Zion Baptist Church and other community advocates were invited to use their networks to help fill the vaccine appointments with anyone who is currently eligible to be vaccinated in Virginia. That includes anyone in the state’s 1a and 1b priority groups: those who are over 65, those between 16 and 64 with underlying health conditions as well as a long list of essential workers.
Meg Carroll, community manager at Georgetown South, called the vaccination events a “game-changer” for her Manassas community’s mostly Hispanic residents. Many have been left out of the state’s vaccination process for a variety of reasons, she said, including a lack of awareness about the online registration process. And while most have mobile phones, many don’t have computers, which makes the online registration process more difficult.
Some, she said, have told her they are nervous about entering their personal information into a state database.
“I had someone text me to ask if the vaccine was available for everyone, even people who are undocumented,” Carroll said in an interview this week. “And I said, ‘Yes, of course it is. The vaccine is for all people, not just those with documents.”
Carroll lost her own husband, Rene, to COVID-19 earlier this year and said she wants as many people as possible to be protected from the virus.
Carroll said she does not believe vaccine hesitancy is preventing local Latino residents from being vaccinated.
“I talk to a lot of people, and I have not seen any more fear [of the vaccine] than I have seen among my white friends or my Black friends,” Carroll said.
Carroll was busy this week texting and calling Georgetown South residents – and even posting her personal cell phone on social media -- in an effort to fill as many vaccine appointments as possible for the Todos Supermarket clinic. When the event filled, she began collecting names and emails for the next event, set for Saturday, April 10.
The store, located in Woodbridge, is about a 40-minute drive from Georgetown South, but Carroll said she is determined “to move heaven and earth” to arrange rides for those who need them.
Dr. Danny Avula, who is overseeing the state’s vaccination efforts for the Virginia Department of Health, said the state is moving toward these kinds of grassroots efforts to break down barriers to the vaccine in minority communities that have seen a disproportionate number of cases and hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
Avula said that about 200 vaccination slots a day in Prince William County are reserved for eligible recipients who might not be on the state’s waiting list. The state is also contracting with two marketing agencies to improve outreach.
“We have learned over the last couple of months that pre-registration is a deterrent for some folks, whether it's not being tech-savvy enough to kind of navigate the [web]site or just being really wary of putting all of your information on a government-run website,” Avula said in a press call with reporters last week.
PW Health District triples weekly vaccinations
Like the rest of the state, Prince William County’s Black and Hispanic residents have lagged behind white residents when it comes to getting the vaccine. Local health district officials say the disparities stem from the initial rollout, which was initially limited to health care workers and residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, two groups that skew white.
But now that the vaccination effort has opened to several categories of essential workers, the numbers are expected to better reflect Prince William County’s majority-minority population.
Also, the pace of vaccinations delivered by the Prince William Health Department has stepped up significantly since March 23, when the former Gander Mountain site became a “community vaccination center” capable of administering 3,000 vaccine doses a day.
Prior to the CVC opening, the Prince William Health District administered between 3,000 and 4,000 doses a week. Once the CVC opened, that number more than tripled to 13,500 inoculations in the first week, according to VDH data.
Because of the robust demand, the CVC will likely remain in operation for 90 days, Avula said.
Eight vaccinators work from 11 vaccination pods at the community vaccination center at the former Gander Mountain site. The set-up allows the site to deliver about 170 doses an hour, officials said.
Daily vaccinations given at the Gander Mountain site are expected to double – from 3,000 to 6,000 – in a few weeks as the site moves to giving both first and second doses, Avula said.
Workers pre-fill vaccination syringes at the community vaccination center at the old Gander Mountain site. Having pre-filled syringes allows the vaccinations to happen more quickly, officials said.
The Prince William County CVC is one of four in the state. The county was selected -- along with Petersburg, Portsmouth and Danville – both because of its low vaccination rate and because of its more vulnerable population. Prince William has had higher rates of infection per capita than its Northern Virginia neighbors since the pandemic began.
The VDH “looked at the vaccination rates in communities, the places that … either have lower vaccination rates or were struggling to find ways to channel vaccine at a high scale,” Avula said.
Workers wipe down chairs in the area where people wait to be observed after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at the community vaccination center at the old Gander Mountain store site.
Having a CVC does not necessarily funnel more vaccine into Prince William because the doses still come from the state’s overall allocation, which is doled out to localities based on their population, Avula said.
But the ability to contract nurses and staff boosts the output and takes the pressure off the local health department. Also, the state has steadily received more doses from the federal government, meaning Prince William’s share has risen steadily over the past several weeks.
Avula said the state would continue to watch the uptake in Prince William and is considering whether to open another CVC site in western part of the county.
Torian said he has been concerned about a lack of opportunity for residents in eastern Prince William, which is home to local ZIP Codes that have been hardest hit by COVID-19, to receive the vaccine. That’s why he said he and other community members asked Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration to allow for the mobile vaccination sites.
“We just needed more opportunity for the eastern side of the county,” Torian said. “The governor recognized that and he made it happen.”
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Local COVID-19 vaccine effort picks up the pace - Prince William Times
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