Paul Bass Photo
Diego Condo gets his Pfizer shot Thursday from Richard Jennings at Fair Haven Health’s Cross clinic.
Ready for all: Kayla Gonzalez, Jennifer Vazquez, and Karen Nemiah of the Fair Haven Health team Thursday outside the Cross clinic.
No need any longer to futz with computers. Or stay on hold forever. The two-thirds of New Haveners still unvaccinated for Covid-19 can now get their free shots at local clinics without an appointment.
That’s what happening in the latest phase of New Haven’s quest to end the pandemic.
Until recently (a week ago? five minutes?), many people had to struggle and wait before getting vaccinated. They spent frustrating hours online or on the phone trying to get appointments. People living within blocks of, say, the clinic at Hillhouse High School had to wait a week or more and still drive to Bridgeport or Plainfield or Ansonia to get their shot.
Then the world changed: Instead of too many people chasing too few shots, the supply has overtaken demand. Now the challenge is to get people to come get vaccinated.
“Everyone who wants a vaccine can get one quickly” now,” said Jennifer Vazquez, a former city nursing director who’s now seeing Fair Haven Community Health Care’s (FHCHC) vaccination efforts. “We want to get everyone vaccinated.”
So on Tuesdays through Fridays, people can just show up between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to the FHCHC-run mass vaccination clinic site at Wilbur Cross High School’s gym. They won’t need to wait. Anyone 16 or older can come and receive the Pfizer vaccine; 16 and 17-year-olds need to be accmpanied by a guardian. (It’s also still fine to make an appointment, here.)
The Hillhouse site, run by Yale New Haven Health, will also accept walk-ins not only during the week, but on Sunday, too. And get this: They have 1,400 shots available for Sunday, at last count.
The Cross site had 500 extra shots available on Thursday for walk-ins, on top of the doses reserved for appointments. About half that many were administered. It has hundreds more available for walk-ins on Friday.
Until recently, not only did people have to wait days for an appointment, but people in their late teens and 20s lined up waiting for the appointments to end at 4 p.m. to claim any doses leftover due to no-shows.
What changed?
Several factors, according to Vazquez and FHCHC marketing chief Karen Nemiah:
• The easing of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions “took the urgency out of it” for some people: They see life returning somewhat to normal, and feel a “false sense of security.”
• The people most motivated to obtain shots have pretty much gotten at least their first doses. Others are less motivated.
Those less-motivated people are now the target of multiple campaigns. And there are many of those folks: Only 33.14 percent of New Haveners over 16 have received at least one dose so far, according to city Health Director Maritza Bond, compared to over 60 percent statewide.
Meanwhile the testing positive rate is about 10 percent citywide, and 11 percent in Fair Haven, according to Nemiah.
So the city is stepping up already active outreach campaigns. It has applied for a grant of over $500,000 to conduct health education campaigns. It has worked with Griffin Hospital and local health care agencies to conduct one-day “pop-ups” throughout town. City officials and alders will walk Dixwell and Newhallville with the American Red Cross on May 8 to arrange for people to receive vaccines that day, Bond said; a two-day walk-up event is planned for Edgewood Park the second week of May as well.
That’s on top of outreach efforts by a “Vaccinate Fair Haven” citizens campaign to knock on every neighborhood door to sign people up and arrange rides if needed; and by Yale New Haven doctors to address vaccine-hesitancy questions at community management teams.
“Our message is: For your own health and safety, as well as for your family, please come out and get vaccinated. We will come to you to help you if you need help in any way signing up or getting there,” said Chatham Square organizer Lee Cruz, a Vaccinate Fair Haven volunteer who joined Fair Haven Health Thursday in promoting the walk-up hours.
Andrea Palacias after her shot: No pain, all gain.
Some people don’t need convincing. Andrea Palaias made an appointment and got her shot at Cross Thursday. “We wanted the vaccine as soon as possible. We were so afraid about Covid-19,” she said after getting vaccinated. She felt fine, she said.
The clinic was closing for the day. As usual, the clinic didn’t have any wasted doses, but it did have no-shows. And, in a sign of the new supply-and-demand shift, there was no line, no waits.
While people without appointments are asked to show up by 2 rather than 4 (the deadline for appointments), in order to avoid opening too many vials, Vazquez encouraged people to come anyway if they miss that deadline. “We’re not going to turn anyone away,” she said.
On its website, YNHH also has scads of appointments available at Floyd Little and Yale West Campus on Friday, April 23, 2021, which would be today for most readers. Appointments were available from 8:45 am to 7:15 pm.
https://www.ynhhs.org/patient-care/covid-19/vaccine/get-your-covid-vaccine.aspx