LOUISVILLE Ky. — On Monday, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Louisville was turned into a COVID-19 vaccination pop-up site to kickstart a three-day event to vaccinate the Shively community.

What You Need To Know

  • UofL Health holds a pop-up vaccine clinic in Shively

  • The clinic was held at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church

  • The clinic is a way to bring the vaccine to those who might otherwise not be able to sign up or get the shot.

  • More pop-up clinics are being planned

 

 

The event is part of UofL Health’s initiative to partner with community organizations, like churches, in Louisville to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to communities most affected by the disease.

“As we all know, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the African-American community, and Shively has one of the highest populations of African-Americans. So that’s why it was important for Antioch to be a part of this process,” Pastor Eric French told media Monday.

Just over 1,000 people by the end of Friday will get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at Antioch. French said transportation and technology have been the two main barriers for people to get appointments.

“And so for a lot of our seniors, they don’t have access to computers or know how to use them. So we were able to set up a telephone number that they could call,” French said, who added that he registered all of the seniors of this church who wanted appointments. “And actually I’m doing the transportation today, going around picking people up, because we need to do anything and everything we can to make sure people get vaccinated.”

One of the vaccine recipients Monday was Delores Carter. She is not a member of the church, but she said she lives in the area. Carter said her councilwoman’s office, Keisha Dorsey (D-3rd District), made the appointment for her.

“Filled out the paperwork and walked right in,” Carter said, calling Monday’s appointment to get the vaccine an easy process.

Dorsey said she advocated UofL Health to bring the pop-up site to her district. She said in addition to making appointments, her office was also able to address fears relating to the vaccine.

“So traditionally when you have a person who is trying to deal with taboos of the vaccination, fears of the vaccination, access to the vaccination, they have one point of contact. Here, when you have communities working together with healthcare providers, with churches, you’re able to layer that so that you are able to address all those issues,” Dorsey said.

It was a painless process for Carter to get an appointment, and the same goes for her getting the vaccine. 

“I didn’t even feel it once she gave me the shot,” Carter told Spectrum News 1.

There are no walk-ups for the pop-up vaccine site at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church this week and all appointments are filled. UofL Health said they have about a dozen more partnerships for pop-up vaccine sites coming up. In the meantime, people can make an appointment to get the vaccine at UofL Health here or view all healthcare partners offering appointments in the state here.

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