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Detroit begins new COVID-19 vaccine campaign to target homebound residents

Posted at 5:28 AM, Jun 14, 2021
and last updated 2021-06-14 12:32:07-04

(WXYZ) — The latest effort to reach Detroit's most vulnerable populations with the COVID-19 vaccine begins on Monday.

A new door-to-door vaccination effort is targeting those who are homebound due to illness or physical limitations.

The city is still taking walk-ins at the Northwest Activities Center, but if you physically can't make it out of the house, Detroit health workers will come to you.

"We know that there are Detroiters who are sick and shut in. These are Detroiters who are unable to come out to any of our vaccination sites, and they were the only significant population that didn't have easy access to our vaccines," the city's chief health officer Denise Fair said.

Detroit is still trying to catch up with other areas in metro Detroit. As of Friday, it only had a 36% vaccination rate, compared to 55% statewide.

The rate is significantly lower than that of Oakland County, which has 65.4% of people vaccinated, Wayne County at 61.8% and Macomb County at 54.4%.

The new program is the latest in the city's ongoing efforts to reach its most vulnerable populations by visiting homeless shelters, senior buildings and other assisted living facilities, as well as providing access for disabled residents and those without their own transportation and doing door-to-door outreach and education.

Detroit Health Department team members have contacted homebound residents directly to book appointments based on a list provided by the State of Michigan.

The 150 teams of vaccinators hitting the streets wear uniforms with picture I.D and will come at your pre-scheduled time

Additional Coronavirus information and resources:

View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.

See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.

Visit our The Rebound Detroit, a place where we are working to help people impacted financially from the coronavirus. We have all the information on everything available to help you through this crisis and how to access it.