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City of Las Cruces Works To Address COVID Vaccination Concerns From Seniors

New Mexico has administered over 291,000 COVID vaccines to those in groups 1A and 1B—healthcare workers, people over 75 and those at risk of COVID complications. But reaching seniors with limited mobility, transportation and technology remains a concern for government officials.

Las Cruces Assistant City Manager Eric Enriquez outlined some of the challenges of reaching the senior population for COVID vaccination.

“The top challenge is the technology. There's a lot of seniors out there that don't have access to computers, or registering for the vaccination,” Enriquez said. “So the city is creating a vaccine task force. And this task force will be comprised of a lot of leaders in the community to get resources out there, such as funding, education, communication, using as much of the leadership in the community to help those that are vulnerable and have challenges with getting the vaccination. So, the seniors, the elderly, that's one of the priorities.”

For Lanette Tomten, a senior in Las Cruces, the matter is personal. In group 1B, she is patiently waiting for the opportunity to schedule a vaccination appointment. She stresses that getting vaccinated is a matter of life or death for the people in her age group.

“If they don't get vaccinated, they're probably going to die because they're older. Most seniors, even if they've been healthy their whole life, by the time you're in your 60s normally you start to have some underlying conditions that you didn't have when you were younger,” Tomten said. “I realize that there's a lot of younger people that don't value seniors, and they don't care if we die, but we care if we die, you know, we do care.”

But Tomten is without a car, leaving her unable to access drive-through vaccination sites on her own, like the one on the New Mexico State University campus. To get around Las Cruces, she often uses the city’s Dial-A-Ride service, something that has to be scheduled weeks in advance.

“The problem with them is that you have to schedule, three weeks in advance,” Tomten said. “So, if I get my appointment time, I've got three days to get there. I can't take the Dial-A-Ride.”

And that’s just the beginning of the challenges facing seniors who are seeking to get vaccinated at walk-in sites.

“I can't stand up very long to wait in line. Most seniors really can't,” Tomten said. “I mean they can stay up maybe 5-10 minutes, but I’m hearing horror stories about seniors who are falling down and hurting themselves in these lines.”

The city is working to address the concerns, offering wheelchairs for those that visit the Las Cruces Convention Center vaccination site in a partnership with the New Mexico Department of Health. Seniors can request a wheelchair from any volunteer, such as those working in the parking lot, when they arrive at the convention center.

For seniors with no ability to get to a vaccination site or limited access to the internet, Enriquez says the city’s COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force  is working to reach seniors through its Meals on Wheels program. 

“We can make sure that we're getting these individuals vaccinated and reaching out to them either by phone or however they're listed on the Meals on Wheels, even to stop by because they're actually making physical contact with them by dropping food off at their physical address,” Enriquez said.

The city is also working to create a hotline for residents in need of additional help related to the pandemic. For now, anyone with concerns can call the New Mexico Department of Health COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.

Expanding the number of vaccination sites is also being explored with a focus on educational institutions and senior centers.

Enriquez says the city’s COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force will be instrumental in getting the pandemic under control.

“I think it's going to be very instrumental for getting people in the community vaccinated. We're going to do our best,” Enriquez said. “We're going to charge this hard and make it happen. This is a break we've been waiting for, for this pandemic, and we want to get back together and living normal lives again. And so, this is one task force that I think is going to be very instrumental in getting that accomplished.”

To register for the COVID-19 vaccine, visit the New Mexico Department of Health vaccination portal, here.

Madison Staten was a Multimedia Reporter for KRWG Public Media from 2020-2022.