Crowded homes creating the perfect environment for COVID-19 cases to spread like wildfire in Santa Maria, an epicenter for the virus in Santa Barbara County.
As harvest season approached, growers begged county officials to vaccinate their workers. But the state and counties didn’t prioritize vaccine doses for farmworkers in February. So the growers and doctors stepped in and set up their own clinics.
Rural health advocates who have ramped up efforts to reach farmworkers say demand for the vaccine is strong.