Lawrence Nurse Making House Calls To Help Get Residents Vaccinated As COVID Cases Increase
LAWRENCE (CBS) - Lawrence public health nurse Jaime Severino is on a mission to get people vaccinated and she'll make house calls if necessary. On Thursday, it was a visit to 12-year-old William Mejia whose mother has limited access to vaccination sites. "She works by herself in a daycare and it's hard to make it to any clinics," said Severino.
She sees her work as even more essential now with a slight uptick in COVID cases in Massachusetts. On June 25 the seven day average was 64 cases, and on July 14 the average jumped to 122 cases which is still extremely low compared to months ago.
Governor Baker attributes the rise to recent Fourth of July gatherings and the presence of the highly contagious delta variant. "Our spike is very small compared to spikes in other parts of the country. We do have a higher vaccination rate which will be very helpful," said Baker.
Vaccines are considered effective against the delta variant in preventing an increase in hospitalizations which is the case right now in Massachusetts. Epidemiologist Dr. Shira Doron also thinks the heavy rain has driven people indoors. "When you have a more contagious virus circulating even in a highly immunized population you will see a bump," said Dr. Doron.
She's watching the numbers but doesn't see a need for change in the habits of vaccinated people.
But Jaime Severino will continue going door to door and setting up pop up clinics in her community. "Hopefully it's a temporary spike in cases we can get more in the community vaccinated in the next month which will help," Severino said.
