THANK YOU, SANTA FE: It’s been a long, hard struggle for the past 15 months, but we are coming out on the other side. As of today, 75% of eligible Santa Fe County residents have gotten at least one vaccination, and an impressive 65% are fully vaccinated, placing us ahead of the Governor’s goal to get the state to 60% fully vaccinated by June 30.

WE GOT HERE BY:

• Swiftly declaring a public health crisis via emergency orders.
• Prioritizing equity as the basis for every decision and action.
• Mounting a robust bilingual outreach campaign that carried our message citywide.
• Partnering with community stakeholders to deliver resources – masks, sanitizer, COVID-safety flyers, and more – to vulnerable populations.
• Establishing an emergency shelter to protect and support those experiencing homelessness during COVID.
• Collaborating with the County to launch the CONNECT program to allocate funds to individuals for rental assistance, paying utilities, access to food, obtaining healthcare services and more.  
• Earning $17.5 million in CARES funding from the state for exemplary initial response and quickly pivoting that funding to bolster our efforts.  
• Working seamlessly with state and county partners to lead the country in vaccine distribution.
• Providing site, staff, and logistical support for vaccination events at Midtown, where nearly 10K doses were administered.
• And most importantly, by rising to the occasion and taking care of each other – family, friends, and community. 

LET’S KEEP GOING!: The more of us who get vaccinated, the safer our children will be, as will those eligible people who can’t take the vaccine. Higher rates of vaccination will also help mitigate the spread of variant strains.

VACCINES VERSUS VARIANTS: Dr. Wendy Johnson, Medical Director of La Familia Medical Center, says the vaccines help protect against the UK variant strain. The DOH recently reported that the UK variant is spreading at a rate two times faster than the original virus, that it accounted for approximately 70% of the recent cases and most of the recent deaths in the state. The DOH urges all eligible residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Vaccinenm.org,