Teche Action Clinic gets $4.3M in COVID funding

Teche Action Clinic will receive about $4.35 million in funding through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan to reach more of the population in communities who are underserved.
The Health Resources and Services Admin-istration will begin distributing the funding in April, according to a White House Fact Sheet. Teche Action is one of 1,376 health care centers nationwide who are receiving some of approximately $6.08 billion allocated, according to the Health Resources and Services Admin-istration.
In Louisiana, Teche Action Clinic is one of 36 health centers to receive some of the $95.59 million in funding. Teche Action’s award is the state’s sixth highest. Marillac Community Health Centers in New Orleans has the highest award at about $9.05 million.
Teche Action Clinic CEO Dr. Gary Wiltz told KBZE 105.9 FM in a Facebook streamed interview that as of March 29, Teche Action Clinic has completed 5,195 vaccinations. Many of those have been at its Franklin location or most in St. Mary Parish. There have been distributions at the clinic’s Houma, Dulac, Edgard, Reserve and Thibodaux sites, too. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and as of last week, Johnson & Johnson have been distributed.
Of those vaccinated, Wiltz said 40% were African Americans.
“We’re very pleased with that group because that was the targeted group,” Wiltz said.
The funding Teche Action Clinic received will be used to also further its reach of testing and treating the vulnerable populations, according to the White House Fact Sheet. It also will be used to provide preventive and primary health care to those who have a greater chance to contract COVID-19. The money also will be used to expand these health centers not just during the pandemic but following it, too. That can be achieved through such ways as changing or upgrading infrastructure and providing mobile units.
“Community Health Centers serve 1 in 5 people living in rural communities,” the White House Fact Sheet said. “More than 91% of health center patients are individuals or families living at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and more than 60% are racial or ethnic minorities.”
Wiltz stressed in his Facebook interview that the vaccines are safe, with side effects being reported as “minimal” nationwide.
“So the safety is something should not be an issue (of concern), and if we’re ever going to get to some normalcy, we’re going to have to vaccinate more and more people,” Wiltz said.
If vaccinations continue and safety protocols are followed, Wiltz said by the end of the summer he thinks they can “get to a very good place, and by the fall we can get back to some normalcy.”