COVID-19 remained the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in 2021, according to preliminary datareleased Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 death rates were highest among people aged 85 and older; Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native populations; and males.
According to a separate CDC reporton the data, disparities in COVID-19 death rates decreased between 14% and 40.2% in 2021 for all racial and ethnic groups except Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islanders. The authors said the reductions reflect the widespread impact of effective interventions, including vaccination, deployed since January 2020 to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 disease and death.
When the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began, pregnant women hesitated to roll up their sleeves for shots, according to a survey conducted by the University of California, Davis.
In the study, published in the journal Vaccine, a team of researchers surveyed 387 pregnant Californians to gather perceptions and reasons behind getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The web-based survey was conducted between December 2020 and January 2021, shortly after the first COVID-19 vaccines were given emergency use authorization in the United States.
Survey results showed that 98.7% of participants were aware of the newly developed vaccine, but more than half were hesitant to be vaccinated, and 43% of respondents reported that they planned to get the vaccine as soon as it was offered to them. The remaining 57% were hesitant. Of those, 27% responded that they would not receive the vaccine as soon as it was offered, and 30% were unsure.
The most common response for being hesitant was: I dont know enough about the vaccine. Leigh Ann Simmons, professor of human ecology and the studys lead author, said that because pregnant people were not included in initial vaccine trials, it was reasonable for these respondents to be hesitant about getting vaccinated.
It was not surprising that not knowing enough about the vaccine was high on the list, Simmons said. The timing of the survey was right as the vaccine came out, and without studies of pregnant people, it makes sense that this concern existed.
The survey also found that respondents trusted health care providers, including doctors and nurses, to provide them with information about the vaccine. Simmons said moving forward, now that pregnant women are starting to be included in vaccine trials, public health agencies and individual health care providers should work together to provide more vaccine information to patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccine trials with people who are pregnant are now underway or planned.
Theres a group of people who are hesitant, but it doesnt mean they wont get the vaccine, she said. If information about the vaccine is communicated in a way people can make sense of it for themselves, then they can make an informed decision for themselves and for their babies.
The survey also found that essential worker status was associated with vaccine hesitancy. Results showed 56% of essential workers were hesitant, compared to 44% of nonessential workers who were hesitant.
Refusing the seasonal flu shot was also highly predictive of COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. Findings showed 78 participants said they had not gotten, nor were they intending to receive, an influenza vaccine. Of those, 90% were also COVID-19-vaccine hesitant. However, of the remaining 287 participants who said they had either gotten, or intended to get, a flu shot, 46% were hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Simmons suggested that it wasnt that those individuals were hesitant to receive any vaccine while pregnant, but rather, hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine specifically.
According to the studys authors, terms like vaccine hesitant and anti-vax do not adequately portray or explain decisions related to getting vaccinated, because within this sample, hesitancy was mostly associated with the uncertainty of the vaccines effect on pregnancy and fetal development.
We like to put people in boxes very quickly, and that is probably one of the least helpful things we can do in public health, because the minute we categorize people, weve lost an opportunity to educate, Simmons said. Its about meeting people where they are, and we have a long way to go on that.
Les, aged 72, has been living with rheumatoid arthritis for the last 25 years. It is a painful condition causing swelling and stiffness in joints, which over the years has limited Less mobility, including his ability to drive.
Even before COVID-19 struck, I was quite isolated. The arthritis affects my feet, fingers, wrists, shoulders and knees, so getting around can be really difficult, and there was a time I couldnt walk more than a few paces without being in agony.
Fortunately, Les was put on a new drug therapy which is now helping to control the condition and relieving some of the pain. But having an autoimmune disease still leaves him vulnerable to life-threatening viruses, such as COVID-19.
When pandemic restrictions were first introduced in March 2020, I was told by my hospital to self-isolate to not leave the house and to not come into contact with anyone from outside my household. What I didnt realize then was that I would remain in isolation for the next 2 years, and that it would put such a huge burden on my wife, who had to do all the tasks that needed doing outside of the home.
Indeed, even the thing he was most looking forward to celebrating his 70th birthday with friends and family, an event organized well before COVID-19 hit Europe had to be postponed twice due to the ongoing nature of the pandemic and the need to continue isolating.
I felt an immense sense of relief when COVID-19 vaccines became available. They not only offered me protection from a virus which could cause me real harm, but, just as importantly, gave me hope that I could one day soon end my isolation. Being immunocompromised meant that I was one of the first to get the jab and, apart from a small bruise on my shoulder, I had no side effects.
Les is now fully vaccinated and finally able to venture outside of his home, but he knows that while vaccines offer the best form of protection against the COVID-19 virus, they are not infallible as he discovered to his cost recently.
Most of the time, I wear a face mask and avoid large crowds, but in the last few weeks I had to attend a friends funeral, along with 50 other people. Most people were not wearing masks and I felt a bit silly putting one on, but now Im kicking myself that I didnt, Les explains.
The next day, I developed a severe headache, lost my appetite and sense of taste, and felt very weak and dizzy. I tested and found I had COVID-19. I felt awful for 2 weeks, and at one scary moment also found myself struggling for breath. The dizziness persisted for another 3 weeks and only now do I feel more back to normal.
Les continues, Im so angry with myself for letting my guard down that one time. But Im also incredibly grateful for the COVID-19 vaccines I got, because the consequences if I hadnt had them could have been much, much worse.
Despite the privations that Les has suffered over the last 2 years, he is philosophical about his experience. Disappointments like lost holidays and parties are trivial compared to dying.
He adds, One of my biggest challenges during the pandemic was looking after my elderly mother who needed daily care during the last year of her life. I am so thankful that we managed to protect her from COVID-19. Less mother passed away peacefully at the age of 97.
Across the WHO European Region, over 1.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in total. Hundreds of thousands of lives are known to have been saved as a result.
Despite the large number of COVID-19 cases currently in our Region, high population immunity, largely brought about by successful vaccination programmes, has helped to keep hospitalization and death rates down.
Getting fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and taking a booster dose when recommended is vitally important, particularly for people who are older, have underlying health conditions or are immunocompromised, because the virus is still circulating at high levels and lives are still being lost unnecessarily.
WHO continues to work with countries to help increase vaccine uptake, particularly among groups at high risk of severe disease.
Even when COVID-19 vaccines fail to prevent hospitalisation, they appear to significantly lower the risk of being admitted to intensive care and dying compared to patients who are unvaccinated, according to a time-matched cohort study of over 20,000 adults hospitalised in Ontario between January 2021 and January 2022, being presented at this years European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal (23-26 April). The study is by Alicia Grima and Kiera Murison from the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and colleagues.
The good news from this study is that, even when hospitalised with COVID-19, both partial and complete vaccination, reduced the risk of requiring treatment in intensive care and death, says Murison.
The rapid development of safe and effective vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus has drastically reduced the burden of COVID-19-related hospitalization and deaths. However, the risk of breakthrough cases of severe COVID-19 after vaccination remains, particularly among groups at higher risk of severe disease.
Researchers set out to determine whether risks of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and death were diminished by vaccination, even in individuals for whom vaccination failed to prevent hospitalisation. Using data from Canadas Case and Contact Management database and Ontarios vaccination and reporting database (COVaxON), they conducted a time-matched cohort of 20,064 adults (3,353 vaccinated and 16,711 unvaccinated) hospitalised with COVID-19 between January 1, 2021 and January 5, 2022. The study was restricted to adults with a first COVID-19 infection.The majority of participants (69%) were aged 50 or older, and most were men (54%).
Because the dominant variant and public health response changed over time, each vaccinated individual was matched with up to five unvaccinated individuals based on test date of positive SARS-CoV-2 infection.Modelling was used to assess the risk of ICU admission (adjusted for age group, sex, healthcare worker, long-term care, underlying illness, and infecting variant) and death (adjusted for age group, sex, long-term care, comorbidity, and infecting variant). Further unmatched analyses were performed to identify differences in vaccine effects.
The researchers found that vaccination with one, two, or three doses significantly reduced the risk of ICU admission and death.And an inverse dose-response relationship was observed between vaccine doses, with each additional dose reducing the likelihood of ICU admission by 34%, and the odds of dying by 22%. No significant differences in risk were seen regardless of the infecting variant.
Even with the diminished efficacy of vaccines against infection with novel variants of concerns, our findings indicate that vaccines remain a vital tool for reducing ICU admission and death from COVID-19, says Grima.
This is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and due to the relatively recent emergence of the Omicron variant, as well as lags, the results lacked statistical power to estimate Omicron-specific protections. Also, the authors were unable to ensure that the effects observed are not at least in part due to residual confounding Finally, they cannot rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors, such as previous natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 in the unvaccinated cohort, may have affected the results.
Reference:Grima AA, Murison KR, Simmons AE, Tuite AR, Fisman DN. Relative virulence of SARS-CoV-2 among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2. 2022.02.15.22271016. doi:10.1101/2022.02.15.22271016
This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
**Goma, 25 April 2022 ** I work at the border, exactly at the barrier, explains Ms Mweze, who works with the Congolese immigration services at the Grande Barrire in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, right at the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with Rwanda.
The close to 90-million people nation is bordered by nine countries: Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. As such, immigration agents like Ms Mweze are essential for ensuring that COVID-19 preventive measures are observed.
North Kivu one of the country's 26 provinces has over 10 million inhabitants. It shares borders with Rwanda and Uganda, as well as nine official points of entry. Prior to the pandemic, an average of 95,000 people used these points to cross the border between Rwanda and DR Congo each day.
We are in touch with people on a daily basis, which exposes us to all sorts of diseases. Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 was a priority, Ms Mweze explains.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with recurrent Ebola outbreaks, disease surveillance measures have been put in place at points of entry in North Kivu by the National Programme for Border Hygiene (PNHF) with support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to prevent, detect and control the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
The rollout of COVID-19 vaccination in North Kivu started in May 2021 and targeted health-care workers and people aged 18 and over. Out of the 170 COVID-19 vaccination sites planned by Government authorities in the province, 137 had been operational up until this February, yet none at the busy points of entry in North Kivu.
To fill this gap, the Ministry of Health, with IOMs technical support, set up temporary vaccination sites at points of entry to better reach communities living along the border who didnt have access to the vaccination programme until then.
Each vaccination site comprises a waiting and registration area, a pre-vaccination consultation area, a vaccine administration area and a post-vaccination observation area, and each team includes two doctors, two nurses and two data officers, as well as a team leader.
IOM is also supporting the provision of medical supplies and personal protection equipment, including surgical masks, examination gloves and fluid resistant isolation gowns, and IT Equipment such as tablets, laptops and internet modems.
In addition, IOM has been strengthening the capacities of frontline health workers and other staff in support of the countrys Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). The activities include training sessions on vaccine safety, monitoring and management of adverse events following immunizations (AEFI), and risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) techniques related to COVID-19 vaccination.
The ongoing vaccination campaign targets migrants, national and international travellers, frontline workers and local communities living along Grande Barrire, including small business owners at risk of COVID-19 infection due to high cross-border mobility.
Ms Mweze is one of the over 1,000 people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in a little over a month at the vaccination site at Grand Barrire, DRCs point of entry with the highest number of people crossing in a day.
It was clean, quick and painless, she says. I am hypertensive, so they took extra precautions before vaccinating me. I felt like I was in good hands.
The success of the joint efforts of DRCs health services and programmes showcased the need for a multisectoral and coordinated approach that would increase vaccination coverage and reduce the mismatch between demand and supply of COVID-19 vaccination services.
IOM plans to support the provision of COVID-19 vaccination to other communities along the borders as well as the set-up of a similar vaccination site at Gomas International Airport.
To boost vaccine demand, IOM is also supporting a national awareness-raising campaign, which allows those living around points of entry and along the border to provide feedback on the response.
A recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Health with support from IOM showed that roughly 66 per cent of those passing through the point of entry at Grande Barrire had received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the same survey, more than half of the travellers who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 were willing to get vaccinated.
We have noticed a huge increase in travellers interested in getting vaccinated here, says Dr Gervais Kakule, Team Lead Physician at the vaccination site at the Grande Barrire in Goma. More and more people these days are aware about the dangers of COVID-19 and the benefits of getting vaccinated.
With COVID-19 still rampant in DRC and beyond, Ms Mweze thinks its imperative to prioritize our health and that of our loved ones. I wanted to get vaccinated because I need to protect myself and my family, she says.
The pandemic is not over yet. You can still catch it at church, at the market wherever there are lots of people. We all need to do our part and get vaccinated, Ms Mweze explains.
IOMs vaccination programme in DR Congo is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
This story was written by Daco Tambilika and Dr Bantu Kalimba with IOM DR Congo.
2.7 million children in the Americas did not receive the vaccines needed to keep them healthy in 2020, while around 230 million people have still not received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the region
Roseau, Dominica, 25 April 2022 (PAHO) In 2020, 2.7 million children in the Americas did not receive the essential vaccines needed to keep them healthy due to interruptions in health services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, warned Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa F. Etienne. Gaps in vaccination coverage, including for COVID-19 vaccines, must be closed, she said.
While we labored arduously to protect our populations against COVID-19, our routine immunization programs were severely affected, Dr. Etienne said at the launch of the 20th Vaccination Week in the Americas in Roseau, Dominica. But even before COVID-19 brought the world to a sudden halt, our coverage for routine vaccines had fallen below optimal levels, she added.
According to the PAHO Director, the last two years have set back almost three decades of vaccination progress against polio and measles, creating a real risk for their reintroduction. Today we are again at the same vaccination coverage levels that we reported in 1994, when these diseases still posed a serious threat to our children, families, and communities, she said.
Dr. Etienne warned that if this situation continues, we will pay an extremely high price in loss of life, increased disabilities, and enormous financial costs.
Since the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines in the region 15 months ago, more than 66% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated. This seminal achievement is, however, not sufficient, Dr. Etienne said. There is still a long way to go to ensure that all populations at risk receive the doses that they need for protection.
The inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, and widespread vaccine hesitancy, have unmasked concerning fault lines along our regional landscape, she said, adding that this is a dilemma that must be addressed sooner rather than later. Vaccination Week is an opportunity to dispel doubts and promote the benefits of vaccination.
The Americas have led the fight in the eradication of smallpox, the elimination of polio, measles and rubella, and in the early introduction of new vaccines such as pneumococcal, human papilloma virus (HPV), and rotavirus, among others. This year, the countries and territories of the region plan to immunize around 140 million people for Vaccination Week, which celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Quotes from presidents, ministers and partners of the Americas at the Vaccination Week launch event
Reginald Austrie, Acting Prime Minister of DominicaThe support from PAHO during the past two years and before has been invaluable. Dominica has been able to fight against COVID-19, limiting the number of deaths and reducing the impact of the virus. Dominica has vaccinated more than 41% of the population, but we acknowledge that more of our people should have already received their shots. Dominica was one of the first countries in our region to receive a significant number of donations of vaccines, as well as from the COVAX Facility. Vaccines have, from early on, been available to every eligible Dominican. Access to vaccines therefore has never been a problem during this pandemic, but we recommit to increasing our vaccination numbers this week and in the coming months.
Gabriel Boric, President of ChileThere is no doubt that vaccines have had tremendous importance in our history and particularly in recent years because of the pandemic. In the face of movements that sometimes question the efficacy and meaning of these mass vaccination processes, we can only defend the achievement of science which, thanks to the collaboration of scientist all over the world, has led to the development of mechanisms to combat terrible situations like the pandemic. However, vaccination rates in countries of the Americas remain very different. We are in a situation where we can either work together to save ourselves or sink on our own.
Guillermo Lasso, President of EcuadorAfter facing the COVID pandemic, the world has understood the importance of vaccines. Not only because they have saved lives, but because they have been key to us returning to normal life. Vaccination is our best ally for preventing and protecting us from diseases. This has been proven with the dramatic reduction in COVID-19, the uncrowded hospitals and the empty ICU beds. This has been possible because of our vaccination coverage against COVID-19, which has immunized almost 9 out of 10 Ecuadorians.
Xiomara Castro, President of HondurasDuring the pandemic, regular vaccination coverage declined, which is why I have called for our national immunization programs to be strengthened and for the necessary investment to be made to ensure quality, free and universal health in our territories, particularly in areas of greater vulnerability. I join PAHO and WHO in committing to make all possible efforts to bring vaccination to all corners of the country, without discrimination and leaving no one behind.
Dr. Irving McIntyre, Minister of Health, Wellness and New Health Investment of DominicaDominicas Expanded Program of Immunization offers vaccines free of charge, at the primary health care level, throughout the life course, against diseases that include diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis and hepatitis. In 2019, we also saw the successful introduction of the HPV vaccine for adolescents which had one of the highest introductory coverage in the region, reaching approximately 92% of adolescents. More recently, we introduced the COVID-19 vaccines, with a current coverage of over 43% of the total population being fully vaccinated. In order to make the best use of COVID-19 vaccines and to accelerate vaccination uptake, we need to implement unconventional and non-traditional concepts in these unprecedented times, including the mobile vaccination team and the launch of a digital vaccination certificate.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, Director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)The decades of effort put into building immunization programs around the world, done in partnership with the countries public health programs, helped lay the foundation for our ability to vaccinate the world against COVID-19. Capitalizing on the work put in place to rapidly scale-up vaccination support for COVID-19 will provide many future dividends as we vaccinate against other diseases. We will only achieve our goals by working together. You have the United States government as your partners in this work.
Dr Carla Barnett, Secretary-general of the Caribbean Community (CARICOMVaccination has allowed the Caribbean to eliminate measles, smallpox, poliomyelitis, and rubella and congenital rubella syndrome. Unfortunately, according to PAHO, there is a less than average uptake of COVID-19 vaccines as well as an observable change in the trajectory of childhood immunizations. In order to address the issue of vaccine hesitancy, the CARICOM Secretariat is collaborating with CARPHA, PAHO, civil society and others to redouble and accelerate public information and education efforts to address disinformation, myths and other drivers and enablers of vaccine hesitancy.
GOV. JUSTICE CALLS SPECIAL SESSION OF LEGISLATUREGov. Justice took time out of his remarks on COVID-19 to discuss the Special Session of the West Virginia Legislature that he called for today; Monday, April 25.
The purpose of the Special Session was to give the Legislature the opportunity during April Legislative Interim Meetings to address bills from the Regular Session that were vetoed for purely technical reasons, among other items.
Earlier Monday, the Governor amended his call to include an additional item for consideration; a supplemental appropriation for $250 million to the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund. Working together with the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council and the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, the fund will provide matching grants to municipalities for use in upgrading infrastructure such as water and sewer systems.
These are major dollars and they are badly needed to help make life better for so many West Virginians, Gov. Justice said. Unfortunately, we still have places where reliable access to these utilities is not available.
These funds will allow us to improve water and wastewater systems in communities across the state providing more reliable and efficient utilities where they are needed the most, Gov. Justice continued. I hope and pray that the Legislature will join with me to get this done. Its a huge step forward.
Click here to read more & view Special Session proclamations
A self-amplifying mRNA vaccine one in which the delivered RNA multiplies inside the body has shown promising results against Covid-19 in ongoing phase 1/2/3 trials. The vaccine, ARCT-154, has been developed by Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings, based in San Diego, California, and its trials are in progress in Vietnam. It offered 95% protection against severe Covid-19 and death, and 55% against Covid infection, Arcturus said in a press release.
WHAT IT MEANS: An mRNA vaccine, such as those from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, use messenger RNA that encodes the spike protein of the coronavirus. In other words, the mRNA directs the cell to produce copies of the spike protein, so that the immune system will recognise the spike if and when actual infection takes place, and mount a response.
A self-amplifying mRNA vaccine is an improvement on the traditional RNA platform. It encodes four extra proteins in addition to the vaccine antigen, and these enable amplification of the original strand of RNA once inside the cell. The basic advantage is that it requires a smaller dose.
THE TRIAL: It enrolled over 19,000 adult subjects in Vietnam, including individuals at higher risk of severe complications of Covid-19 disease. The Phase 3 placebo-controlled vaccine efficacy portion of this study enrolled over 16,000 participants. An analysis between 7 days and 56 days after completion of a two-dose vaccination series demonstrated 55% vaccine efficacy for protection against Covid-19, the release said. These cases were detected during an outbreak in Vietnam when the Delta and Omicron variants were dominant.
The analysis of severe Covid-19 disease (including deaths) included 43 severe cases. Forty-one cases occurred in the placebo group and two in the vaccinated group, demonstrating vaccine efficacy of 95%, the release said. Nine deaths were reported in the placebo group, and one in the vaccinated group, whom the company described as an older age group participant who was also at increased risk of severe Covid-19.
ADVERSE EVENTS: The incidence of unsolicited adverse events in the two groups are comparable, the release said. No cases of myocarditis or pericarditis were reported; however, the company conceded that the study is not large enough to reliably observe these events given their extremely rare frequency of occurrence.
Adverse events collected in diaries of study participants (solicited adverse events) for seven days following each vaccination demonstrate that the majority of these events were mild or moderate in severity, it said. The majority of solicited adverse events resolved within the 7-day window of observation.
IMPLICATIONS: The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19 are the only two mRNA vaccines available so far. The new vaccine may come with significant advantages: easier storage, along with lower cost because its self-amplifying design allows for smaller doses, Science magazine said.
However, the magazine noted, much of the world has already been vaccinated, and the Arcturus vaccine may be making its debut too late, at least for primary vaccination.
Newsletter | Click to get the days best explainers in your inbox
Not all vaccines, however, produce virus-specific killer T cells effectively. For example, the seasonal influenza vaccine does not do so effectively and reliance on antibodies alone for protection is partly why we need annual influenza vaccination. Fortunately, mRNA vaccines have been able to elicit killer T cell responses well.
But will we need to get repeatedly jabbed to keep up antibody levels for protection?
Antibody levels against all viruses, whether from vaccination or infection, decline with time. Regardless, both B cells (antibody-producing cells) and T cells have memory. These memory cells can be rapidly activated and expanded to swiftly deal with infection even after antibodies wane.
Whether we need repeated booster vaccinations depends on whether we need to prevent all symptomatic infections or just severe COVID-19.
If we aim to stop all cases from happening, then we need baseline levels of antibodies to be sustained over long periods. That can only be done through repeated booster vaccinations.
But if most of us can tolerate flu-like symptoms, such as fever, cough and body ache, and live with them for a few days without hospital care, repeated boosters wont be needed.
Scientists have repeatedly demonstrated that vaccination will prevent severe COVID-19 in immunocompetent individuals. Booster shots can then be reserved for those whose immune functions are less robust or compromised by chronic illnesses.
I think the choice has been made for us by the virus. Variants will continue to emerge as that is a matter of survival for the virus. We will not be able to block SARS-CoV-2 out from the human population entirely.
A pop-up COVID-19 clinic has been scheduled in one of Westchesters largest communities.
#VaxUpWestchester announced that it is teaming up with the Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center and RXR Realty to provide COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters for all eligible residents in the region.
The event has been scheduled for 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, at the Food Bazaar on Bogopa Place in Mount Vernon, officials said.
As part of the event, there will be a $50 cash-equivalent gift card available for those receiving a first dose or booster.
Officials said that the event will be first-come, first-served while supplies last.
There will be Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson available, and walk-ups will be welcome.
The time is now to protect our community, organizers said. Together.
Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.
