Chatham Area Transit will be hosting a free vaccination clinic this month at the Joe Murray Rivers Jr. Intermodal Transit Center, 610 W. Oglethorpe Avenue.
The J.C. Lewis Primary Health Care Center pop-up clinic will be at the transit center from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Aug. 25. Both the Johnson & Johnson and the Pfizer vaccines will be offered. No appointments are necessary. Recipients of the vaccine will have to wait at the center for 15 minutes of monitoring after getting the shot.
The event is a collaboration between J.C. Lewis Primary Health Care Center, YMCA of Coastal Georgia, Healthy Savannah and REACH, a national program administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.
CAT is continuing to implement safety measures in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. These measures include a mask mandate and reduced capacity on CAT vehicles.
Health officials say that such measures would not be necessary if more people were getting the vaccination, but hesitancy to get the shot, along with the arrival of the Delta variant, has led to COVID-19 cases increasing again after a period of decline. While no vaccine is 100% effective, those who are vaccinated are less likely to contract the virus and for those who do, the symptoms are often mild and the chance of hospitalization is low.
ABOUT THE SUPPLEMENTAL RACIAL AND ETHNIC APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY HEALTH (REACH) GRANT
On Dec. 27, 2020, the President signed into law the FY 2021 Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (P.L. 116-260), which includes supplemental funding for coronavirus vaccine activities to support broad-based distribution, access and vaccine coverage. Resources are focused on planning and preparing for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines, supporting the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine program, expanding the existing immunization infrastructure, engaging in additional partnerships, and implementing and evaluating new strategies to reach affected populations, such as those who may be vaccine hesitant and those who are in racial and ethnic or other minority groups. The supplemental grant funds awarded to the YMCA of Coastal Georgia and Healthy Savannah must be spent/expended within an 18-month performance and budget period from April 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022. Local program administrators are Paula Kreissler, project director, paula@healthysavannah.org; Nichele Hoskins, communication manager, nichele@healthysavannah.org; and Elsie Smalls, PhD, operations manager, elsie@healthysavannah.org.