Municipal Management

#ElPasoStrong: How this west Texas town is fighting COVID-19, one shot at a time

By LAUREN CAGGIANO | The Municipal

Cities, towns and states have been on a mission this year to get their residents vaccinated, and some campaigns have been more effective than others. El Paso, Texas, however, serves as a shining example of what success can look like.

Laura Cruz Acosta, strategic communications director with the city of El Paso, said the numbers speak for themselves. As of the time of press, almost 71% of the population 12 and older was fully vaccinated, and 83% have had their first dose. Perhaps even more encouraging is the fact that 88% of the population age 65 and older are fully vaccinated. And about 96% of this cohort have had at least their first vaccine dose.

“We’re doing very well in terms of the vaccination rates, and we want to continue that trend in our community,” she said. “So, we’re pushing out continuously the need for the community to get vaccinated and also get tested.”

To that end, Acosta said the city has been intentional in its approach in uniting various city departments to bring vaccines to the masses.

“Our fire department and our public health department have been working very closely in terms of vaccinating and testing individuals,” she said. “And in coordination with all of that, we have several other different departments involved in different areas of the COVID-19 response.”

For example, she attributes the high vaccination rates to specific efforts.

“What we’ve done is that we’ve gone doorto-door in some of the critical areas,” she said. The city of El Paso has made both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines available to the public. (Photo provided by the city of El Paso)

Strategic Communications Director Laura Cruz Acosta said the EPStrong.org website has been critical in achieving El Paso’s high vaccination rate. (Photo provided by the city of El Paso)

“We’ve collaborated with nursing homes and long-term homes in our community. We’ve also been very collaborative with our school districts. Our school districts have been very helpful in terms of helping us get the word out and helping make sure that we have pop-up vaccination (sites).”

Concerning the latter, Acosta said the city held pop-up vaccination events in different parts of the community, in addition to permanent sites that are available MondaySaturday. El Paso has a vaccine site at the convention center downtown, which offers later hours. Speaking of availability, Acosta said officials are nimble enough to adjust to the expanding or shrinking demand from residents.

“We adjust the hours so that we fit the needs of the community in a lot of ways,” she said. “We describe it like an accordion—it expands and contracts as a community needs change. When we were seeing our numbers decrease

The city of El Paso is one of several health care providers able to dispense the vaccine. (Photo provided by the city of El Paso)

Vaccines are also available to the public without an appointment at one of the various pop-up sites throughout the city. (Photo provided by the city of El Paso)

in terms of cases of COVID cases, we were able to adjust the resources accordingly.”

Another contributing factor to the public health campaign was the use of the city’s award-winning website — EPstrong.org — to disseminate information about these initiatives.

“It’s a very important website for us because it offers information about our testing and rates of vaccinations,” she said. “And it also has information about the data that’s out there in terms of who’s getting vaccinated and who needs to get vaccinated — everything that you could want.”

Getting specific populations vaccinated has been easier than others. That’s why the city offered a pop-up vaccination site at ports of entry, specifically designed to reach truckers.

“If you know anything about El Paso, we’re a border community,” she said. “We have a lot of transportation in our community coming in from Mexico. And so, to help ensure that our population is safe, we’ve started vaccinating those truckers.”

With that goal in mind, Acosta said El Paso has also partnered with different nonprofit organizations that help migrant populations and the homeless. For example, the city has hosted pop-up vaccine sites at food banks.

In retrospect, Acosta said the high rate of vaccine compliance in general — be it COVID-19 or the flu shot — is not a shock due in large part to the culture.

“We have a very matriarchal society here locally, with Grandma and Mom under the same roof,” she said. “And so, they know that the children’s needs to be taken care of.”

Speaking of culture, Acosta said the city has made translation and interpretation services available to reach non-English speakers.

Still, she acknowledges there’s work to be done. In her words, “we’re now at the hardest part of the vaccination process, where we have to get that last group of folks convinced.” That’s why the city is hosting information sessions to help address any questions or concerns about the vaccine. At the same time, El Paso is continuing to promote public health and safety protocols, like mask-wearing, handwashing and physical distancing — basically “taking care of one another.”

All of this would not be possible without teamwork.

“It was critically important for us is that we worked very hard to eliminate silos across the city,” she said. “The response that we’ve had with COVID is that city leadership has worked very hard with staff to develop a strategic plan that looks at resilience, as well as eliminating some of the barriers and thinking outside of the box.”

For example, the health department reports to the fire department. They work together to be able to respond to calls. This spirit of collaboration has served them well in recent months.

“Our fire chief led a cross-functional team that oversaw different aspects of the COVID response,” she said. “And what I mean by that is that we’re looking not only at vaccination and testing, but we’re also looking at food scarcity, homelessness, rental assistance and business assistance — the economic development components of it. And so, we pulled all those individuals who touched that piece of the puzzle to look at a holistic approach to how the community is going to overcome the pandemic, not just from the vaccination and testing position, but as a whole.”