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Tulsa Health Department And Caring Van Partner To Get COVID-19 Vaccines To Communities Of Color

KWGS

The Tulsa Health Department and the Oklahoma Caring Foundation are teaming up to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The foundation’s Caring Vans will visit several locations next week that predominantly serve residents of color, vaccinating 80 to 120 people at each one. Most of the sites are churches. THD is trying to reach Black, Latinx and southeast Asian communities.

"In north Tulsa and east Tulsa and the Jenks area where a lot of these communities live, churches are a center of a lot of these communities," THD Executive Director Dr. Bruce Dart said during a vaccination briefing earlier in the week.

Dart said there are issues to overcome like distrust of large-scale vaccination programs and language barriers.

"Hopefully, we’ll be able to address those issues and ensure that regardless of your space and where you’re at in our community, access to vaccine will not be an issue," Dart said.

Each location will handle its own appointments for adults who are currently eligible: health care workers, first responders, and those 65 or older. Caring Vans will return on the appropriate date for second doses.

St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 918-592-6770

Metropolitan Baptist Church, 918-25-5402

Antioch Baptist Church, 918-583-1620

New Jerusalem Baptist Church, 918-425-1369

Friendship Baptist Church, 918-582-4491

Tulsa Community Service Center, 918-835-4489

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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