INDIANAPOLIS — Getting more people vaccinated is a top priority for Marion County.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said he'd like to see 50 percent of Marion County residents fully vaccinated by July 4, which would allow further easing of COVID restrictions.
But the county has a ways to go. As of this week, just a third of residents had their shots, with non-white and non-English-speaking residents especially reluctant to roll up their sleeves. The biggest obstacles? Language barriers and trust, according to Jackie Rodriguez with the Immigrant Welcome Center.
"A lot of our communities have a tendency not to trust government or officials based on their lived experiences," Rodriguez said. "The other issue is language access. If the information is not available in their own language, they have a harder time understanding what's going on and what resources are available to them."
The Immigrant Welcome Center is one of the groups helping with a vaccine sign-up hotline set for Saturday.
"It's really just about ensuring people have access to the information, that they're able to call and get help and get appointments for their COVID vaccine," Rodriguez said.
A Spanish-language hotline in March led to more than 800 people signing up to get vaccinated. This latest campaign, heavily promoted on social media, includes 65 volunteers fluent in at least one of nine languages: Arabic, Burmese, English, French, Hakha Chin, Mandarin, Spanish, Swahili and Yoruba.
Volunteers will answer questions about the vaccine, direct callers to the most convenient clinic and stress why non-English speaking residents are among those at highest risk of getting COVID.
As Rodriguez said, that's because of their "over-representation" in frontline and essential jobs.
The hotline runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 5. The number is (317) 327-2100.