EL CENTRO, Calif. — San Diego's neighbors in Imperial County, California boast some of the best vaccination rates in the state. However, the road to get to their 86% vaccination rate wasn’t easy said City of El Centro Mayor Cheryl Viegas Walker.
“We had no capacity to handle our own patients at that point in time. We were flying out 500 patients because we did not have the capacity in our hospital to handle that," Mayor Viegas Walker shared.
She said that’s when folks in El Centro – and throughout Imperial County – knew the virus was serious and they wanted to get vaccinated.
“Everyone I talked to knew someone or had a family member that either got very seriously ill from COVID or died. And that’s a reality that’s staring at you right in your face," Viegas Walker said.
But when the vaccines became available across the county, Imperial County hit another unexpected hurdle. Rosyo Ramirez works for Imperial County Public Health as their Deputy Director of the Community Health Division.
“It was very scarce," she said. "We didn’t get a huge allotment based on our population. And there were a lot more people interested in getting the vaccine than vaccines available.”
Ramirez also said getting shots in the arms of their citizens took a lot of help from county leaders and community partners through outreach programs and drives.
Once that hurdle was overcome, getting the word out to those in some of the remote areas of the county proved to be another difficult task.
“A lot of people don’t have access to computers or aren't computer savvy to register for a vaccine appointment," Ramirez said.
She said that’s when community partners pulled together again with internet resources to help people get inoculated. Now Imperial County has an 86% vaccination rate for at least one dose of the shot and 69% of the county is fully vaccinated.
Their vaccination rates are only eclipsed by Marin and Santa Clara counties in northern California.
The new fight for vaccinations, Ramirez said, is against mis and dis-information.
“There is data out there. There is research out there. Go to a valid site where you can get your information from," she said.
As COVID cases start surging again because of the Delta variant, Mayor Viegas Walker said, “If you don’t want to get vaccinated, that’s fine. Stay home. Just stay home.”
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