White House announces new programs to raise rural coronavirus vax rates; see latest rural infection rates - Entrepreneur Generations

Percent of rural population completely vaccinated
Daily Yonder map; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version

"The Biden administration will increase resources allocated to rural communities in an effort to get more Americans vaccinated by July 4, the White House announced Tuesday," Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder. "The announcement says the Biden administration is raising the goal for vaccinations to get at least one shot into the arms of 70 percent of American adults, and for 160 million U.S. adults to be fully vaccinated, by July 4." About 45%, or 95 million of Americans age 18 and up, were fully vaccinated as of May 1; metropolitan counties have a 29.7% vaccination rate, compared to 26% in nonmetropolitan counties. "To raise the rural vaccination rate, the administration will send vaccines directly to rural health clinics in underserved communities and provide $100 million in American Rescue Plan funding for 4,600 rural health clinics to use for vaccine outreach in rural communities," Carey reports."Additionally, the Health Resources and Services Administration will provide rural health clinics and rural hospitals with $860 million to broaden Covid-19 mitigation efforts. The funding amounts to about $100,000 for each of the rural health clinics and $230,000 for each of the 1,730 rural hospitals.

The administration would also direct tens of thousands of pharmacies to begin offering walk-in vaccination appointments, and would direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to work with local leaders to vaccinate the hardest-to-reach individuals with more mobile clinics, pop-up clinics, and smaller community vaccination sites, depending on each community's needs. "The president announced nearly $250 million in two funding opportunities for community-based organizations to ramp up personal outreach by hiring community outreach workers, community health workers, social-support specialists, and others," Carey reports.

New rural coronavirus infections fell by 5% last week from the week before, compared to a 15% drop in metropolitan counties. See the Yonder for the latest rural coronavirus infection and death rates, including an interactive, county-level map and regional analysis.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/3elP5xX White House announces new programs to raise rural coronavirus vax rates; see latest rural infection rates - Entrepreneur Generations

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