AUSTIN (KXAN) — Research has shown that Austin’s most at-risk neighborhoods are seeing the lowest vaccination rates, and now city leaders are looking to change that.
“The number of vaccines coming from the state are increasing,” Travis County Judge Andy Brown said.
As the access to the COVID-19 vaccine is expanded, there are also many who still have barriers keeping them from signing up.
“We are well-aware there is still a lot of work to do in Travis County, especially east of 35,” Brown said.
Brown and Travis County Fire Rescue Chief Ken Bailey are two of the many working to reach more people.
“We have this idea of if you build it, they will come,” Bailey said.
Bailey hopes to have more pop-up clinics around neighborhoods in east Austin.
“We started to identify those people that weren’t coming,” Bailey said. “So how do we reach them and if COTA or the University of Texas is not the option for them? We build these satellites to still meet those gaps.”
Brown says extending clinic hours would also give more people access.
“Making it accessible in the evenings or on weekends when people don’t have to work will also hopefully increase the number of people in those zip codes getting the vaccine,” Brown said.
Will there be any efforts to go door-to-door?
“We are working with ESD, Chief Ken Bailey is piloting this idea that we will actually, yes, go door-to-door and find apartment complexes and go one-by-one,” Brown said.
Bailey concurred and said there’s a plan in the works to do that in the future.
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