Valle del Sol’s role in the vaccine distribution

Jose Cardenas talks with the CEO of Valle Del Sol, Carmen Heredia about the vaccine rollout. Valle del Sol I’ve been a major part of testing people across Arizona for COVID-19. They are still doing testing for COVID-19 and will continue testing for COVID-19 as long as it is around Heredia said. They are going out in the communities and testing different individuals using a mobile team at different locations. They are also testing at their clinics. Heredia and there is still a big need for testing. An example of this is over the holidays. Many individuals needed to know if they were exposed.

Jose asks if people are as concerned about getting tested as before. Heredia says they are getting more no-shows at Valle del Sol. She also said there are many more places in opportunities to get tested. They talk about Valle del Sol’s role in getting the COVID-19 vaccine distributed. Heredia says the state has been very supportive of health centers being a way to distribute the vaccines. They are working with  Maricopa county on a contract to go to long term care facilities. They are going to places that are group homes in senior centers fragile. These are people that are individuals that cannot come out to a big distribution site. So Valle del Sol is going to them. Heredia said they are still following those guidelines.

Patients do go into their clinic in person as well and they do we can do drive-by events. They hope to open up the channels to the individuals that are not as tech-savvy or have less flexible jobs and more. They also talk about how many people of color are hesitant to get the vaccine. They have held virtual social media panels to go over myths versus facts. She said they have high hopes that there will be more vaccines but many have frustrations about not being able to get the vaccine.