- Title: Taking the fight against COVID-19 door-to-door in Florida
- Date: 24th July 2021
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) REVEREND KEN IRBY, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY INTERVENTION AND JUVENILE OUTREACH FOR THE ST. PETERSBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAYING: "Well this vaccine effort is immensely important to us because it is necessary to get people vaccinated to overcome this Delta variant. And we decided that we were going to pivot, it's not just about crime but it's about public safety, and so we have merged our 'Not my Son' campaign in partnership with the Health Department to also offer vaccinations to people in the community, because we are all about engaging them, and talking to them about the social determinants of health and needs that they have in their community to be successful, and we can't have that conversation without them being alive. And the vaccine protects lives, there's no doubt about that. So, we added this as a component with the food and the community engagement, and voter's registration, and police engagement."
- Embargoed: 7th August 2021 19:08
- Keywords: COVID-19 Florida Not My Son St. Petersburg Police door-to-door outreach vaccines
- Location: ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
- City: ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health/Medicine,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA003EN79LJB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The battle against COVID-19 is going door-to-door in St. Petersburg, Florida, as the Bethel AME Church has partnered with the St. Petersburg Police Department to encourage the community to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and promote efforts to stop gun violence.
At front doors every week, the "Not My Son" campaign in is not only sending a message about gun violence, but is encouraging people to get vaccinated.
"It's not just about crime, but its about public safety, and so we have merged our 'Not my Son' campaign in partnership with the Health Department to also offer vaccinations to people in the community," Rev. Kenneth Irby, Director of Community Intervention and Juvenile Outreach for the St. Petersburg Police Department, said. "We can't have that conversation without them being alive."
The campaign comes as the seven-day average of new cases in the United States is up 53 percent over the previous week, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said on Thursday. The Delta variant, which was first found in India, now comprises more than 80% of new cases nationwide and has been detected in more than 90 countries.
Florida is now recording more COVID-19 cases than any other U.S. state, as hospitalizations in some areas increase at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported, with the state accounting for one in five new infections in the U.S.
(Video: Octavio Jones, Production: Deborah Lutterbeck) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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