BELL, Calif. (CNS) — A COVID-19 vaccination site will open Monday at the Bell Community Center as part of a continuing effort to make doses more accessible to residents in lower-income neighborhoods that have been hit hard by the pandemic, County Supervisor Hilda Solis announced Thursday.

"The COVID-19 crisis has been most severe in areas such as Southeast Los Angeles where residents serve as frontline essential workers, live in multi-generational or overcrowded housing conditions and have little to no access to healthcare," Solis said. "All these factors have put families living in this region at greater risk of exposure and infection."

According to Solis' office, there have been 59,514 COVID-19 confirmed cases across the Southeast Los Angeles communities in her First District, and 813 deaths. But only about 55% of eligible residents have been vaccinated, compared to other county areas where 70% to 90% of eligible residents have received at least one dose, Solis said.

The new vaccination site will operate at the Bell Community Center, 6250 Pine Ave., providing access to residents from communities such as Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate, Walnut Park, and Vernon. The site will be a partnership between Solis and JWCH Institute Inc.

"Bringing doses of hope directly to Southeast Los Angeles will provide older adults, food and agriculture workers, individuals with disabilities or underlying health conditions, and other populations eligible, with an accessible manner to get immunized," Solis said.