National Guard Brings COVID Vaccinations To Hard-Hit Maryland Communities With Mobile Clinic
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. (WJZ) — As Maryland works to vaccinate everyone in the state, the National Guard is using their mobile clinic to bring the vaccines to some of the hardest hit communities.
On Friday, the vaccine mobile clinic came to Montgomery County and parked outside of CASA of Maryland. CASA is an organization serving immigrants and this particular location, their headquarter offices, mostly sees immigrants from Central America.
It's here, where members of the National Guard's Equity Task Force say there's still a barrier between the people and the vaccine.
"A lot of them don't speak English, a lot of them are afraid of getting the vaccine and a lot of them don't have a certain mode of transportation to get them to the mass vaccination sites," said Specialist Wayra Cerda of the National Guard.
CASA's Leidi Garcia agreed. She said the closest vaccine site to their offices is the Six Flags and that's about a forty-five minute drive.
But this community needs the vaccine just as much as any other. Mainly because they're made up of frontline workers who work in construction or retail and are coming into contact with people all the time, said Specialist Cerda.
And Garcia added that many, because they are undocumented, are unable to go to a mass vaccination site because that requires some kind of identification. "It has to be a Federal I-D for them to be able to get vaccinated," Garcia said.
That's something they don't have. Like, Norberto, from Peru. He was first in line Friday morning, for a vaccine. He said he felt safe coming to get one at CASA because he trusts the organization.
"They trust coming here, they trust that we're doing this for them," Garcia said.
And because of the National Guard's vaccine clinic, Norberto is now vaccinated.
