NEW YORK (AP) – Many Hispanic immigrants who work in restaurants and can already get vaccinated against COVID-19 in New York celebrated that news Wednesday, while others said they will not rush because they fear possible side effects and, according to activists, there are a who are worried about suffering migratory repercussions.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that he was giving each county the power to add taxi drivers and restaurant workers to the list of people who can be vaccinated. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t think twice.
“Our workers are the main engine that maintains our daily life in the most difficult moments,” De Blasio wrote in Spanish on his Twitter account on Wednesday. “From now on, those who work in restaurants and drive taxis can already receive the vaccine against coronavirus ”.
Eleazar Cordova, a 43-year-old Mexican who owns and also works at a restaurant called Pablito’s Taqueria in Brooklyn, said she felt “a lot of satisfaction.”
“On the one hand it is scary, but at the same time you have to have faith in God, that he is going to help us (the vaccine). It will save us from a lot of disease, ”said Cordova, who recently suffered the death of her father-in-law and mother-in-law from COVID-19 in Mexico.
“I have great faith that nothing happens to us first,” said the mother of three daughters, referring to possible side effects or discomfort after getting the vaccine.
According to a September report from the New York State Comptroller’s Office, Hispanics represent 44% of all restaurant workers in the city, making them the largest block of restaurant employees. The same report indicates that in 2018 60% of restaurant workers in the city were immigrants.
Hispanics, along with African Americans, have been one of the groups most affected by COVID-19 in New York, with a high number of deaths. Yet so far, 48% of city residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine are white, according to recent city data.
Only 11% of the doses administered in New York have been received by African Americans and 15% by Hispanics, even though African Americans and Hispanics represent 24% and 29% of the city’s population, respectively.
For Axayacatl Figueroa, a 42-year-old Mexican who has worked in the kitchen of a Vietnamese restaurant in Brooklyn for more than a decade, the vaccine is good news.
“It is an opportunity to have a little more health,” he said. “From the moment we are born they give us vaccines. There is no other ”.
Yareli Adán, another Mexican who works at Pablito’s, is not so sure.
“The truth, the truth, I don’t know. Honestly I’m scared to get vaccinated, but I know I’m an essential worker so I think I’ll have to do it, ”said the 21-year-old.
Spokesmen for the city said that people who qualify for the vaccine because of their employment must show that it forces them to be in contact with the public and that they work in New York. Immigration status is not asked of people who are going to be vaccinated. They can show a letter from their employer or a pay stub saying where they work, said Pedro Frisneda, the spokesman for the city’s Health Department.
Access to the vaccine includes food delivery people, many of whom are Hispanic.
Migrant aid groups from across the United States have called for access to the vaccine for immigrants and farm workers. Some say that there are immigrants who fear to wear it due to their immigration status.
Both Adán, Figueroa and Cordova said they were not afraid of that.
“I am calmer because of the change of president of the United States,” Adan said in reference to the departure of Donald Trump and the arrival at the White House of President Joe Biden. “I feel more confident facing all this.”
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