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Volunteers pound the pavement in Shelby County's least vaccinated ZIP codes to encourage more shots in arms

The group was out in Berclair Thursday to let folks know about a Sunday vaccination event at the Memphis International Flea Market.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — "When you are able to talk heart to heart you are able to get through," Yuleiny Escobar said.

Home by home and block by block, Thursday, a group of volunteers were on the move and on a mission in Memphis. They focused on a section of Berclair, among the lowest vaccinated Memphis ZIP codes and one of the highest concentrations of non-English speakers.

"It's important to me because I know my community is a vulnerable community," Escobar said.

"The immigrant community is often left out of any written communications," Janeita Lentz added.

The group set out to knock on more than 180 doors on different streets, but with the same goal: getting more people vaccinated in Shelby County.

"It's very exciting to unite a community behind something that's as important as saving lives," Lentz said.

The volunteers handed out and left behind fliers, letting residents know about several hundred available vaccine doses for free, that will be administered Sunday between 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. at the Memphis International Flea Market at 4010 Jackson Avenue.

"It's really touching when you can give someone a reassurance that they need to get over the hurdle of getting vaccinated," Lentz said.

For the group, their efforts are a small piece of a much larger operation: getting the area closer to herd immunity vaccine levels and staying ahead of the fast spreading Delta variant, that's infecting less than 1% of those fully vaccinated.

Vacunas contra COVID-19 este domingo 8 de a gusto en La Pulga de Memphis 4010 Jackson ave. Memphis Tn. 38128

Posted by Memphis International Flea Market on Monday, August 2, 2021

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