NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The City of New Haven is continuing the push to get people vaccinated by bringing those shots directly into neighborhoods. The city’s health department hosted three pop-up vaccine clinics Wednesday.
“You’re not just protecting yourself, you’re protecting the next person to you,” said William Walton, of New Haven, who received his first dose at the First Calvary Baptist Church site.
The vaccinations at the church made possible in part by The Rev. Dr. Boise Kimber, who applied to the city to bring a clinic to the church.
“Black and Brown people are suffering the most with this pandemic and so we are pushing this in this community,” said Rev. Kimber.
City officials also called the clinics a critical service in efforts to ensure vaccine equity and get more shots into arms.
“We wanted to make sure from the very beginning that we were being accessible to the community,” said New Haven Public Health Director Maritza Bond.
“This is one of 25 pop-ups that we’ve done in the community so far implemented by the New Haven Health Department,” said Mayor Justin Elicker.
Wednesday’s other two pop-up clinics happening at Hill Regional Career High School and the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church as the race to vaccinate continues.
“In the City of New Haven, 17 percent of the population has been vaccinated so far,” said Bond.
The city also noted that any clinic run by the health department is now open only to New Haven residents in an effort to meet their vaccination goals.
“While we wanted to support our sister cities, we are redirecting them to their own community to get vaccinated,” said Bond.
The city has six more vaccine clinics scheduled, four pop-ups and two mass vaccination sites.
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