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Sacramento County Tackles Zip Code Vaccine Disparities

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A vaccine victory could depend on where you live. While Sacramento County has vaccinated nearly 800,000 people, the data shows some neighborhoods are getting left out.

Samantha Nguyen in East Arden had no problems signing up to get her shot.

"Pretty much I just registered for it and just went there. It was actually easy, the website had a ton of availabilities," explained Nguyen

At the same time, Jessica Cardoza less than five miles away in North Highlands is still on a waitlist just to get an appointment, despite being a caretaker.

"I've been waiting, going on three months now, Cardoza explained. "If I don't get vaccinated, then I can't be a caretaker, I can't do what I have to do to supply for my kids," she said.

A few zip codes that are struggle the most, according to the county include North Highlands and Foothill Farms both under 6,000 vaccinations. That's compared to areas like East Arden and East Sacramento who are not seeing the same problems. In both areas, more than 9,000 people have been vaccinated.

The county is trying to address the zip code disparities.

"Not only are these communities underserved but these are the communities that were hit the hardest by COVID-19," said Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye.

Dr. Kasirye believes the reason for the drastic differences include former rollouts based on occupation, limited access to doses, and internet-based registration. For North Highlands residents like Donald Martin, not having internet access is his main obstacle to getting the vaccine.

"It's been hard, very hard, because if you don't have internet access you can't get it," he explained. "It makes me angry and all that because everyone is getting there's and we can't," he said.

Sacramento County is now targeting clinics in the 12 most underrepresented areas to try to even the zip code score. According to Kasirye, 10 clinics are scheduled for this week in targeted areas.

"The clinics that we are setting up in these communities -- we are actually having in some situations people going door to door to sign people up and we don't open them up to the public, we make sure that it is targeted and only available to the communities that we are focusing on," she said.

Kasirye estimates it could be a month or two before unrepresented areas start seeing significant growth numbers when it comes to vaccines.

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