A Lincoln County community health organization is challenging business owners and managers to send their essential, agricultural and food processing workers to a special vaccination clinic from 4-8 p.m. Friday at La Juquilita Mexican grocery, 312 U.S. Highway 101, Newport.
The Toledo-based Olalla Center is organizing the event, using the Pfizer vaccine. Each person vaccinated will receive a $25 grocery voucher to La Juquilita. Spanish and Mam interpretation, a community atmosphere, live music, education, and goody bags will be provided.
The center has been teaming with Lincoln County Public Health to offer vaccines through clinics aimed at the Latino and Indigenous communities.
One such clinic vaccinated employees of Newport Super Oscars, after daughter and father co-owners Yuliana Tafoya and Servando Rivas encouraged their workers from suffering the same fate as many of their loved ones.
“… we lost family members to COVID-19,” Rivas said. “I lost my dad, and Yuliana has lost three of her uncles. We did not want to lose any more people. We needed to take care of those close to us, and that includes our employees.”
In Oregon, Hispanics represent 13 percent of the population but 24 percent of the state’s COVID-19 cases, according to the Oregon Health Authority. In Lincoln County, 1,115 people of 28,114 vaccinated – or 4 percent – identify as Hispanic, according to the OHA’s data. The county’s overall vaccination rate is near 66 percent.
Tafoya and Rivas understood and faced down barriers to lead their workers to the clinic, said Olalla outreach coordinator Kendall Cable, including hesitancy, language, misinformation, transportation, and work schedules.
“We have been trying to get our employees vaccinated since this whole thing started, but there were many obstacles,” Tafoya said. “First, they were all very nervous about getting vaccinated. So, my dad and I decided to set the example and got vaccinated first. Our employees then saw that we did really well and started to dismiss all the false information.
“Then, there was the issue with getting themselves scheduled since they don’t speak English and do not know how to navigate the Internet. I was so excited to get a call from the Olalla Center asking if our employees wanted to get vaccinated. I made many calls and tried to work with everyone’s schedules, but it was getting impossible. So, we decided to go ahead and close the restaurant. We were not sure how each of them would react to the vaccine, so I drove those who did not have transportation and gave them the rest of the night off.”
To reserve a vaccination appointment, people should call Alex Llumiquinga at 541-819-0436 or Martha Varo at 541-283-5876. In addition with LCPH and OHA, Olalla Center is partnering with Juntos en Colaboracion and Oregon State University for to put on the clinic.