Pop-up clinics bring vaccine to areas that need it
As the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations slows in Oklahoma and other parts of the U.S., the Oklahoma CityCounty Health Department is taking inoculations into communities for popup clinics.
The approach is a way to remove potential barriers preventing someone from getting to a vaccination site, like lack of transportation, and offer convenient shots to those who otherwise might not seek one out, said OCCHD Executive Director Patrick McGough.
“What will drive the locations and the groups that we’re targeting will be the data that we have from our ZIP Code mapping,” McGough said. “So we can tell where it’s needed, or where it’s lacking, so to speak, and then we can go to those neighborhoods in those communities and provide the vaccines.”
The goal of mobile vaccine clinics is also to get more people in the 18-35 age group vaccinated by setting up shop in areas where younger crowds congregate.
“That group in particular, we have data that shows us that that group actually needs to have a greater uptake of the vaccine,” McGough said.
About 19% of 18-35-year-olds in the state are fully vaccinated, with about 24% having received at least one dose, according to the latest epidemiology report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Those numbers don’t include doses given through federal entities, which includes vaccinations through tribes.
One recent vaccination pop-up at Scissortail Park during a Cinco de Mayo festival had 98 takers, said Blaine Bolding, the local health department’s chief of public health protection. Others have given out smaller numbers.
“But even if we ended up with 10 or 18 at these locations, we’re still chipping away,” Bolding said.
Lower participation at some larger vaccination events pushed OCCHD and other providers to more targeted approaches, McGough said. For example, an April event at the state fairgrounds that was prepared to give 10,000 vaccinations in a day ended up giving fewer than 6,000 of those doses.
“When we were doing the larger PODs, when we first began to get the vaccine, we needed to get it in the arms of as many people as possible,” he said. “Now that vaccine is readily available, we have to make sure that the ones that need it the most, and the areas that are lacking vaccine uptake, that they are the ones that are getting it.”
So if vaccinating 100 people at a time is what it takes, that’s “a perfect way to do it,” McGough said.
Soon, OCCHD will identify locations where the department can offer vaccines daily. They’re also taking vaccines to the homebound and partnering with businesses to set up mobile vaccination drives for their employees.
Mobile health units across the state have tried to bring vaccines to where people are already gathered, said Keith Reed, deputy commissioner of health at the
“We’re still working through this to reach those hard to get populations. … We think every shot is important.”
Dr. Lance Frye State health commissioner
Oklahoma State Department of Health. Bringing vaccines into neighborhoods “is just another step in going the extra mile to reach everybody we can,” Reed said.
“We all wish that we had the rush on the vaccines still that we had, because we have enough supply in our in our state,” Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said at a recent briefing. “We’re still working through this to reach those hard to get populations. … We think every shot is important.”
Across the state, 51% of adults have had at least one dose, and about 40% are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which include doses given in Oklahoma both through federal and state resources.