Czech mobile vaccination teams revisit socially excluded localities where COVID-19 disinformation has had more of an impact

Mobile immunization teams have been vaccinating residents of more socially excluded localities in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. Immunizations without preregistration were scheduled for the Kunčičky and Radvanice neighborhoods of Ostrava, a community center in Frýdek-Místek, Havířov's Šumbark quarter and Karviná.

Nikola Birklenová, spokesperson for the Moravian-Silesian Regional Authority, informed the Czech News Agency of the plans on 30 August. The tour was planned in collaboration with organizations active in the socially excluded localities. 

"In order to increase the immunization rates in our region, we have decided to offer vaccines to people from these so-called socially excluded localities. Many people with lower levels of education and incomes live in those locations who do not have the opportunity to electronically register and who, moreover, have a tendency not to trust institutions and authorities," Governor Ivo Vondrák (ANO) told the wire service.  

The Governor added that the residents of such places are more accommodating of social services staffers who have long been in contact with them and who aid them with resolving various difficulties. "For that reason, representatives of exactly such organizations working in those localities assisted us with organizing this immunization," he said. 

The Regional Authority was helped by Caritas Ostrava-Opava, the Portavita association, the Centrom association, the "Life Together" (Vzájemné soužití) association, the Dživipen organization, and the Romani advisor and field social worker from the Frýdek-Místek municipal authority. "Thanks to our collaboration with people from the field, we know that the most appropriate time for immunizations in these areas is the late afternoon. It has also been demonstrated that many people do not have personal identification, so we ultimately decided to vaccinate people without submission of an identity card, it will be enough if they know their full social security number. Another important circumstance is a certain distrust that comes from the disinformation circulating in these communities about immunizations. For that reason, the paramedics from the mobile team are prepared to explain everything to people and answer all of their questions," the Governor said.   

A total of almost 1.2 million doses of the vaccine have already been delivered by paramedics in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Almost 560 000 people there have already been fully vaccinated.

During the final week of August, 81 people received positive COVID-19 results in the Moravian-Silesian Region. That number was 14 more than had tested positive during the previous week.

That information comes from the Smart Quarantine program and was released by the Governor. It means six people per 100 000 in the region were newly infected during the last week of August.

Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 180 004 infections recorded in the region, which is roughly 15 % of its population. As of 30 August there were eight people hospitalized for COVID-19 throughout the region compared to four the week before.

A total of 3 537 people have died of COVID-19 in the region so far. Roughly 176 000 people there have survived being infected.

The statistics in the Smart Quarantine program list infected persons according to their permanent residence. Infected persons in the region who have their permanent residence in a different region are also listed in the Smart Quarantine statistics for the region where they were tested.