In Arkansas, Covid-19 cases surge as state combats vaccine skepticism

In Arkansas, the fight against both the deadly Covid-19 Delta variant and vaccine hesitancy starts one person at a time, meeting them where they are. Sometimes, that's at church.

At St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Little Rock's Southwest side, Oscar Martinez was seizing his chance at a pop-up vaccine clinic in a gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, sponsored by the University of Arkansas of Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Mexican Consulate -- a direct attempt to reach out to the area's Latino population.
"I have been visiting the region for the last month, so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity today," Martinez told CNN.
Officials in the state are pulling out the stops to get people vaccinated. Arkansas not only has one of the lowest vaccine rates in the country -- only about a third of eligible people are fully vaccinated -- but is facing a troubling uptick in Covid-19 cases - fueled mostly by the emerging Delta variant of the virus.