Vaccine clinic in Mecca for underserved communities

Vaccine efforts in the valley continue, especially as the Delta variant keeps spreading. A vaccination clinic was held in Mecca on July 17 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m at the Boys and Girls' Club. 

It was hosted by Borrego Health and Pueblo Unido Community Development Corporation and primarily reached out to underserved Riverside County communities such as farmworkers and indigenous communities. 

"At this point, a lot of people of our community are vaccinated, but we still have that percentage that still needs to be vaccinated," said the director of community capacity building at Pueblo Unido Yaneth Andrade Magaña. "And we just really want to make it as easy as possible for them to access that vaccine."

The clinic offered bi/multilingual staff and translation services. Andrade said many in the community still are confused about the Delta variant.

"I think it's something that in general and the whole population, we're still trying to figure out how to process the all the information that's out there. I mean, I think it's mostly out of caution," said Andrade.

She said her team came prepared to answer questions about the variant. One common question: will the vaccine protect from the Delta variant?

"Even people that are vaccinated, 'Will we be protected? Will we have to get another vaccine?,'" said Andrade.

Pueblo Unido wants to make sure they can keep people in their community informed regardless of the language they speak.

"Really have that accessibility of language," said Andrade. "We want to make sure that we have the space to talk about it, that they have the option to talk about it, or ask questions."

Pueblo Unido plans to continue hosting more vaccine clinics in mecca and in other underserved communities. You can follow their social media for updates on future vaccine clinics.