Onondaga County continues its vaccine outreach in under vaccinated communities. This week will see pop up clinics in Mattydale, Cicero, Skaneateles, and on Syracuse’s North and South sides. County Executive Ryan McMahon said they are heading into neighborhoods with low vaccination rates, hoping to address hesitancy and ease of access.
McMahon hopes limited vaccination locations up to this point has been the main problem.
“Cause we can fix that easily," said McMahon. "Some of it certainly is hesitancy, and that’s a little bit harder to fix. So, what we’ll do is we’ll go through. Dr. Gupta and her team have done a great job of putting together teams, and we’ll go through into these communities. And we won’t just do it once, right. We’ll go through a couple times.”
They’ll later hold town hall-style meetings to address further questions. Syracuse’s 13204 zip code which encompasses Tipperary Hill and the Near Westside currently has the lowest vaccination rate in the county. McMahon said there are multiple barriers in that area.
“Our 20 year olds and 30 years olds haven’t…they’re just a little behind. So if you look at, that’s a big demographic of that neighborhood. When you look at the Near Westside, one of our poorest areas, you run into other types of barriers to anything. Transportation’s a barrier,” said McMahon.
McMahon said they are looking into offering some sort of incentive for people to get the vaccine, but nothing official yet. Onondaga County needs to vaccinate around 10,000 to 13,000 more people in order to reach herd immunity among the current vaccine eligible population. Vaccine appointment information is available on thecounty website.
ONONDAGA COUNTY POP-UP VACCINE CLINIC SCHEDULE 5/3-5/7
- Tuesday May 4th: Northside Learning Center (9am-Noon, Johnson & Johnson), Cecile Community Center (9am-Noon, Johnson & Johnson)
- Wednesday May 5th: Mattydale Fire Department (9am-Noon, Johnson & Johnson)
- Thursday May 6th: Hillrom- Skaneateles Falls (9am-Noon, Moderna)
- Friday May 7th: Cicero American Legion (9am-Noon, Johnson & Johnson), The OnCenter (Johnson & Johnson)
