Salt Lake charity bringing coronavirus vaccinations to homeless patients

The Fourth Street Clinic, a charity healthcare provider in downtown Salt Lake City, has begun offering COVID-19 vaccinations for the city’s homeless population by taking its mobile clinic to shelters, transitional housing projects and other venues that allow for social distancing for patients.

Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Fourth Street Clinic was able to go to its clientele with an RV-style vehicle. But that ended when social distancing inside the mobile clinic was not possible. Now the clinic’s personnel find venues where patients can be seen in roomier environments.

According to Laura Ingham, Fourth Street Clinic’s developmental director, the clinic receives around 30 vaccines a day and has administered about 1,000 doses to clients. About 800 of those were first dose and the rest were second dose. Ingham said that the arrival of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has made the logistics of vaccinating sometimes-hard-to-find homeless patients much easier.