When state officials unveiled the $33 million outreach program aimed at bringing COVID-19 vaccines to the state’s minority population, Gov. Ned Lamont likened the distinctive yellow vans to ice cream trucks that would soon be cruising through the neighborhoods.
But after a promising start, the program has hit a wall, and the number of doses administered from the vans has plunged by more than 50% in the past few weeks.
Last week, personnel from Griffin Health Care, which runs the program for the state, administered 1,032 doses, according to data provided by the state Department of Public Health. During the first week of April, 2,321 doses were dispensed through the vans.
Over the past two weeks, the CT Mirror has visited yell0w van sites in Bristol, Griswold, East Hartford, Manchester, New Britain and New Haven and found that in the majority of those locations, the vans administered fewer than 20 doses over five- and six- hour shifts.
Many of these mobile clinics have little or no advertising, other than a listing on Griffin’s website. Several pastors and local health officials who have hosted the vans in their communities are registering complaints about how the program is being run.
The vaccine outreach effort, they said, is hampered by a lack of planning, a lack of communication between local officials and officials running the program, and little or no help getting the word out about the van, from either the state or Griffin.
The yellow van program is the centerpiece of the $33 million outreach program the state launched in late March using federal funding. The outreach program is designed to reach unvaccinated residents who live in areas identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “socially...
from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/CT-s-yellow-van-vaccination-clinics-are-16170797.php
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