Florida church hosts vaccination clinic after six members die of COVID-19

A church in Jacksonville, Fla., held a free vaccination clinic on Sunday after six of its members died of COVID-19.

Impact Church’s Pastor George Davis told Jacksonville-based WJXT in an interview on Friday that the churchgoers were all unvaccinated.

“In the last 10 days, we have had six members of our church who passed away from COVID. Four of them were under the age of 35. All of them were healthy, and the only thing they had in common was they were not vaccinated,” Davis said.

He estimated that between 15 and 20 church members were in the hospital and at least 10 more were battling the virus at home.

During a Sunday service that was livestreamed by the church, he lamented the loss of the six members who had passed away from the disease, according to CNN. 

“It has just absolutely ripped our hearts apart. The most recent one was actually a young lady on our worship team,” Davis told the congregation.

As a result, the church set up a vaccination clinic where free Pfizer shots were offered to those who wanted to get immunized. Additionally, medical experts were also there to answer any questions church members might have about the vaccine, Davis said, according to CNN.

“Part of my resolve is, yes we are praying, but we aren’t just going to be praying,” Davis said. “We are going pray and do something. And part of our do something in this situation is that we are having a vaccination event.”

Florida has seen a staggering number of COVID-19 cases and on Friday reported its highest number of single-day new cases since the start of the pandemic at 22,783. The worrying surge of new cases has been attributed by health officials to the fast spread of the delta variant.

About 51 percent of the state is fully vaccinated, per data from Johns Hopkins University.