Los Angeles, Feb 6 (EFE) .- The Monseñor Romero community clinic began its first day of vaccination against covid-19 this Saturday for patients residing in the center and east of Los Angeles, a Latino community that has become the epicenter of the pandemic nationwide in recent weeks.
This community clinic, the flagship medical center for Mexicans and Central Americans in Los Angeles, many of them undocumented, vaccinated patients older than 75 with doses of Moderna, one of two currently supplied in the United States.
The center received one hundred doses from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and hopes to offer more vaccination days as more vaccines become available and accessible.
According to the clinic, since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, its patients have suffered a positive rate of the coronavirus close to 40%, a number significantly higher than the 16% of the total of Los Angeles County.
This is because many of its residents are considered essential workers and must work with the public, they explain.
Of its two Los Angeles centers, where they treat about 12,500 patients, the one that began the vaccination this Saturday was the one located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, with a large concentration of Mexicans.
Only in Los Angeles County, 1,138,764 positives of covid-19 have been registered, the one that adds the most cases in the entire country, and doubling the figures for the second. And it is also the one with the most deaths from this disease in the US, with 17,764, far from the 8,900 in Cook County (Washington state).
Carlos Vaquerano, executive director of this non-profit health center, told Efe that this action responds to the great challenges facing the communities they serve in Los Angeles.
‘We are in areas very, very affected by covid-19, to this we have to add that many of them have pre-existing conditions, they do not have transportation and we know that they are not good at technology either to be able to access appointments in the mega-centers (of vaccination). Also many are alone or their children work all day, ‘he explained.
Despite the complicated situation in the area, he regretted that for now they only have a hundred vaccines, which are barely enough to care for 1% of their patients.
‘We are aware that there are few doses, but we are asking the county, the state and the Government of (President Joe) Biden to realize that these Hispanic, undocumented and low-income communities are being very affected. Our people are dying, and we are not doing what is necessary to protect them, ‘he said.
Los Angeles County health officer Muntu Davis acknowledged this week that Latino mortality is three times that of white communities, and Latino deaths from COVID-19 have increased 1,000% since November 2020 in Los Angeles County.
Despite this situation, which is widespread throughout the country, the distribution of vaccines is reaching the non-Hispanic white population sooner, which has generated criticism from minority leaders. EFE
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