A push is underway to reach members of the Sioux City community significantly impacted by COVID-19.
Siouxland Public Media’s Sheila Brummer has more.
Local churches and Sioux City’s NAACP have teamed up with Siouxland Public Health to offer a special COVID-19 vaccination clinic. The event this weekend is geared toward Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
Information from the local health department shows vaccination numbers for the local Black and African-American community to be under 1%.
“Education is key in all of this. We just want people to feel comfortable so we can get people back to normalcy and back to life.”
That’s Ike Rayford, the local president of the NAACP.
A study by Yale University shows people of color face a greater chance of developing severe cases of COVID-19. Black people in the U.S. are at three-and-a-half times higher risk for dying of complications of the disease.
“That’s one of the reasons we are taking an active stance and trying to be aggressive because our community has really suffered a great deal from it.”
Rayford says the clinic will not include the Johnson and Johnson vaccine currently pulled from distribution across the county.
The clinic at Mt. Zion Baptist Church takes place Sunday at 1 p.m. Pre-registration is required and can be done by calling (712) 253-8245 and leaving a message.
