Imperial County, California’s poorest, has nation’s highest vaccination rate

Imperial County, a rural region in Southern California along the Mexico border, has one of the best vaccination rates against Covid-19 in the nation, despite being one of the state’s poorest regions.

The largely Latino population — who work primarily in agriculture — came together to fight the deadly virus, boasting a 95 percent vaccination rate for adults over 18 who have completed the primary booster series. Seventy one percent of Imperial County’s children have completed the primary series of vaccines, compared to about 40 percent in the rest of the state.

“Before the pandemic, we had endemics, persistent endemics. So a pandemic only means the entire world is experiencing a crisis such as we did with this virus. But we are experiencing that all the time. We’re experts,” said Luis Olmedo, Executive Director of Comite Civico del Valle . Luis Olmedo, Executive Director of Comite Civico del Valle . He spoke at a July 13 news briefing cosponsored by Ethnic Media Services and the Vaccinate All 58 initiative of the California Department of Public Health.

“Congratulations to everyone in Imperial County on the outstanding job they’ve done getting people vaccinated. You should […]

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