Protecting the Homeless from MetroHealth on Vimeo.
The City of Cleveland has received far fewer doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine from the state of Ohio than they have of the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the city's chief of youth, Tracy Martin-Thompson, (who oversees the health department), told city council Monday.To date, the city has received only 300 of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and all of them were delivered to MetroHealth to be administered to the city's homeless population, Martin-Thompson said.
MetroHealth confirmed to Scene that this was the case. The public hospital system had last week already administered 500 first doses of the Moderna vaccine to both members of the homeless community and staff workers who regularly interact with them. The City of Cleveland provided those doses to the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and were administered by Metro.
Metro then received the Johnson & Johnson doses Friday. They plan to administer them this week and next at a number of shelters and service providers for people experiencing homelessness, including Frontline, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, the West Side Catholic Center, St. Herman's House of Hospitality, Journey DVCAC, the Metanoia Project, and others.
"It is a privilege to serve this community, which is among the most vulnerable, and is in keeping with MetroHealth’s mission," a MetroHealth spokesman wrote Scene in an email.
The video embedded above is from vaccine distribution at 2100 Lakeside, the men's shelter managed by Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries. It is the largest homeless shelter in the state of Ohio.
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