Free COVID-19 testing and a chance to express opinions about the vaccine will take place at a drive-up clinic sponsored by North Carolina Central University on Saturday, Dec. 19.
The clinic will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Greater Walltown United Holy Church, 706 Belvin Ave. It is one in a series of clinics designed to engage underserved communities of color in nine North Carolina counties where testing and other health care services are not easily available.
“Many residents of Durham have not had adequate access to life saving medical and health care resources,” said Dr. Undi Hoffler, coordinator of the site and head of Research Compliance and Technology Transfer for the university.
“Since Durham is also home to our campus, NCCU is committed to bridging that gap and making sure our neighbors’ needs are not overlooked during the pandemic.”
NCCU was one of six institutions awarded funds from a $6 million grant from the N.C. Policy Collaboratory at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in July 2020 for COVID-19 research and care. NCCU’s share of the funding, $1 million, was used to create the multidisciplinary research and outreach effort, ACCORD.
Residents attending the Durham COVID-19 testing event may be asked about their thoughts and opinions surrounding the virus and the option of taking a vaccine once it becomes available, said Deepak Kumar, director of the Julius L. Chambers Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute who spearheads the ACCORD effort.
"When vaccines become available, we want to give people all the information they should know about the safety of the vaccine and everything they need to know so that communities can make informed decisions," Kumar said.
