CHICAGO — As COVID-19 patients overwhelm hospitals in Southern Illinois, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is urging people to help end the pandemic by getting vaccinated.
On Thursday, Durbin attended Chicago’s heavily-populated Hispanic Southwest side to push vaccinations through the American Rescue Plan with federal relief dollars that aim to help critically important community clinics get more people vaccinated.
Ricardo Cifuentes, with the non-profit Esperanza Health Center, is accelerating vaccination efforts in many Latinx neighborhoods.
“So just in a couple of weeks, we’re set to reopen the mass vaccination site,” Cifuentes said.
Durbin spoke on Thursday about the plan to curb vaccine hesitancy in the Hispanic community moving forward.
“The American Rescue Plan surges resources to our vaccination distribution effort. It provides $50 billion in public health funding and expands health insurance for the first time in a decade,” Durbin said.
With five neighborhood clinics across the Southwest side, the non-profit Esperanza clinics serve multitudes of Hispanic families and individuals regardless of insurance status or the ability to pay for medical treatment.
Jose Alejandro Gonzalez and his family told WGN they felt good after receiving the vaccine shot at Esperanza’s Brighton Park clinic.
“You don’t feel it,” Gonzalez said.
Esperanza Health Centers five Chicago-area locations include:
- Esperanza Brighton Park Clinic
- 4700 S. California – (773) 584-6200
- Esperanza Little Village Clinic
- 3059 W 26th Street (773) 584-6200
- Esperanza at VIDA Pediatrics,
- 3124 W 59th Street (773) 906-5160
- Esperanza California Clinic,
- 2001 S California Ave. Suite #100 (773) 584-6200
- Esperanza Marquette Clinic,
- 6550 S Richmond (773) 584-6200