With the number of COVID-19 shots being given per day at an all-time low, public health experts, doctors, and officials are concerned about getting more Americans vaccinated before the next surge.
And they still draw people like Kevin Robertson, who passed by a city-run clinic at Waterview Recreation Center in East Germantown earlier this month. He had always meant to get hisHe sat down, rolled up his sleeve, and nurse Lola Kwarteng gave him the injection.Many providers say their continued outreach is worth it, even if they just reach a couple of people like Robertson every day.
“The people who still need doses take a little bit longer, and we’re willing to wait for them,” said Philadelphia health department spokesperson James Garrow. At the same clinic was Rana Hightower, 52, dropping in for her second shot. Her job in a nursing home requires it, she said, but she would have been more comfortable not getting vaccinated.
With her was 60-year-old Richard Chestnut, getting his second shot — nearly a year after he received the first one. He contracted pneumonia in April, around the time he got the first dose, and then got “jittery” about getting his second one, he said. They live across the street, so they knew the clinic was there when they were ready.
“You don’t get that shot, you can die. … You get that shot, you be all right,” said Chestnut, who was more cheerful than Hightower about his vaccination. He said they’d helped each other get there: “She pushed me, and I pushed her.”