In a pandemic, homeless people are more forgetful than they already are
Mehta, a GP, and his small team of doctors and nurses have been showing up at homeless centers in his local area, the COVID-19 hotspot, offering free injections to dozens of could be left behind in Britain’s massive vaccination campaign.
“We will miss them if we do not proactively accept them,” said Mehta. “They have nothing to do with it, in terms of medical care. Finding them is absolutely essential to what we need to achieve in our cities. ”
Homeless people are not listed among the British government’s highest priority groups for vaccine distribution – which currently includes people over 70, nursing home residents, front-line medical workers and social care workers, as well as clinically vulnerable people.
With rough sleepers and people in shelters who cannot be contacted by doctors, some local authorities across Britain have begun deploying mobile vaccination teams. to identify the clinically vulnerable among them so that they can have the injection.
The charity Homeless Link said the UK government had appealed to local officials to accommodate so many “rough sleepers” and help them register with a doctor as the temperature dropped and as a more contagious virus altered a large increase in UK infection rates. But the charity said a clear strategy had not been put in place to ensure homeless people were vaccinated, which meant officers in different areas had been left to take different holdings.
“We believe a targeted approach to vaccination is needed to protect homeless people,” said Rick Henderson, the charity’s chief executive.
“Homeless people are much more likely to report chronic illnesses such as asthma, heart problems and stroke, and are prematurely old. In addition, the use of communal accommodation such as homeless hostels increases the risk of contracting from COVID-19, ”he said.
In the outlying areas of north-east London, which have seen some of the worst disease rates in England, Mehta and his mobile vaccination team have been busy working outside the clinic. aca. They gave a vaccine injection to more than 200 homeless people and social care workers at two community centers last week, and plan to reach another 70 next week.
Mehta is pleased with the progress so far.
“These are very difficult groups to reach – they could be in different places, here today and going to central London the next day,” he said. “We run them effectively.”
Earlier in the week, the British government urged anyone living illegally in the UK to register with a doctor and get vaccinated, promising not to check the status of in- their migration or the risk of displacement. It was not clear how many people are affected by the policy – the last official estimate, in 2005, suggested that there were around 430,000 people in the country who did not have a legal right to live.
More than 12 million people in Britain have now received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine. Officials say they are on track to offer first doses to 15 million in the main priority groups by Monday, and have set a target to vaccinate every adult in the country with the fall.
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AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic continued at:
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak