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Congressman Darren Soto, Alianza For Progress' Marcos Vilar Call on the Local Latino Community To Get Vaccinated

Photo: Darren Soto
Photo: Darren Soto

Florida recorded more than 16,900 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday alone.

Congressman Darren Soto says vaccination rates in the Latino community are improving locally in Orange and Osceola County. 

But Soto urged Hispanic residents to keep that trend going as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread in unvaccinated people.

“Because we are the essential workers. We are the small businesses. We are the first responders. We are out there. We’ve been out there throughout the pandemic. And so our community’s more vulnerable. And so we need everyone in Central Florida, including our Hispanic community to work to continue to get everyone vaccinated."

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Alianza for Progress’ Director Marcos Vilar says once people get vaccinated, they need to spread the word. Hispanic people throughout the state have a vaccination rate of less than 40 percent according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“And this is a big problem and part of it is disinformation and as leaders in this community, responsible leaders in this community, we’ve come together today to ask you to ask the public to vaccinate and to mask up.

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Florida and Texas now account for one in three new COVID cases in the country. 

Find your closest vaccine here.

Danielle Prieur is WMFE's education reporter.