HARTFORD, Conn. (WTIC Radio)—The Connecticut Department of Public Health has announced plans to provide local health departments and their community partners $33.3 million in federal funding to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations for minority and underserved communities, state officials announced Tuesday.
According to Public Health Acting Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford, the funds will establish outreach, education and other services for people in targeted zip codes that are high on the CDC's social vulnerability index.
The funding will go toward equity partnerships between local health departments and community organizations in order to reach racial/ethnic minorities and underserved communities, officials said.
"By providing funding and support to local equity partnerships, we are empowering the people and organizations on the ground who know the residents of these communities best to reach out and ensure they have the information and access necessary to receive vaccine," Gifford said in a statement.
The Department will be issuing grant funding information and applications this week to interested local health departments. Applications are due by April 15 and grants are expected to be awarded as soon as April 23, public health officials said.
In addition to that, the department is using the first of a national fleet of mobile vaccination units from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), officials said, with the capability of delivering up to 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccines per day.
Over the next two months, officials said the mobile unit will visit 17 Connecticut municipalities with the help of local health departments.
Alongside that, Griffin Hospital in Derby will be deploying vaccine vans that can administer 80 to 100 doses per day in select neighborhoods, public health officials said.
"The key to this effort is reaching out to every Connecticut resident where they live," Governor Ned Lamont said. "The only way we get to the other side of this pandemic is to vaccinate everyone as quickly as possible. We need to do everything we can to make that happen."
Related
