With a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases and the continuing spread of the highly contagious delta variant, calls to vaccinate vulnerable populations have increased, with a variety of plans being floated to ensure the protection of people of color.

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons,” said Dr. M. Norman Oliver, Virginia’s health commissioner, in a recent Free Press interview.

Dr. Oliver explained that after the initial wave of the pandemic that heavily impacted Virginia’s minority residents, health officials are working to better target these communities for advocacy and access “to ensure that they get testing, ensure that they get vaccination,” particularly as the potential for booster shots of the vaccine become a reality.

While the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines has continued to hold against new variants, the ability and willingness of some African-Americans and other people of color to get vaccinated has remained a challenge.

In Richmond alone, only 33.4 percent of the city’s African-American residents and 7.1 percent of Latino residents are fully vaccinated, according to health department data posted on Monday.

The numbers are only slightly higher when factoring in those who have had at least one dose of the vaccine. According to the data, 34.5 percent of African-Americans and 7.7 percent of Latinos in Richmond have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The data also show that African-Americans and Latinos continue to account for a disproportionate number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the virus not only in Richmond, but across Virginia and the United States.

As a result, Virginia, like many other states, is seeking to improve its approach to vaccinating communities of color, including re-assessing their methods during what is called “a critical moment for us to slow the spread,” said Dr. Cameron Webb, a Charlottesville physician and senior policy adviser of equity for the White House’s COVID-19 Response Team.

“More and more people from the Black community are saying that they are vaccine ready,” Dr. Webb said during a recent virtual forum with other Black health professionals. “But that still means that we’ve got some folks that we need to reach in order to make sure our communities are protected.”

Dr. Leonard L. Edloe, president-elect of the Virginia Pharmacists Association, said the challenges surrounding current vaccination efforts within minority communities are nothing new. From his work as a consultant to Westwood Pharmacy in Richmond and as pastor of New Hope Fellowship Church in Middlesex County, he has faced a variety of obstacles around COVID-19 vaccinations, from simple fears in the moment to “a whole lot of wives’ tales” among some church-goers.

The challenges Dr. Ed- loe and others cited include long-standing issues between the Black community and America’s health care system, complacency to the threat of COVID-19 and a lack of confidence in the vaccines. They also pointed to misinformation and the barriers to access people of color face, not just geographically, but in their ability to set aside work or other concerns to go get the vaccine.

Taken altogether, these obstacles call attention to the plight of communities without the means and infrastructure to address their health concerns and to get needed support.

“The resources aren’t in the community,” Dr. Edloe said of the current vaccination effort. “That makes it difficult.”

In response, medical professionals have outlined a number of potential solutions to get vaccines into the arms of people in communities of color. They are centered largely on advocacy and further expanding access. While initial efforts to vaccinate communities of color focused on local community leaders like preachers, recent discussions have stressed the importance of using trusted health care providers, in particular physicians, to encourage individuals and their families to get vaccinated.

These providers, as explained by Dr. Samuel Hunter, president of the Richmond Medical Society, an organization of Black physicians, would best work as established parts of minority communities, with an “continuity of care and trust” and understanding of a patient’s health. With this relationship, doctors could address any misgivings and misinformation patients have around critical health matters, including COVID-19 vaccination.

The importance of medical professionals in quelling concerns about the vaccine was echoed by several other health officials.

“We have to be able to sit down and talk to (patients) and really understand what questions they need answered,” said Dr. Michele Benoit-Wilson, an OB-GYN with WakeMed Health in North Carolina. “We went into medicine because we wanted to serve our communities, and we know that Black and Brown physicians are the ones who are taking care of more Black and Brown patients. It is so vitally important for us to get the message out that vaccination is safe and it’s necessary in order to keep us all safe.”

A major issue, however, is that many Black and Brown people don’t have primary care physicians, as historic inequities have resulted in health disparities that have been highlighted during the pandemic.

Another option pointed to is the importance of local, trusted sources for information, such as Black-owned media, to answer the public’s questions and spread facts and resources that can be shared in the community. This can help not only reduce misinformation and worries, but can also aid in the work being done by those in the medical field.

“We’re the individuals that Black and Brown patients have trusted to take care of them, and we need for them to continue to trust in our care,” said Dr. Rachel Villanueva, president of the National Medical Association, the largest and oldest professional organization that represents the interests of more than 50,000 African-American physicians across the country and the patients they serve.

“We need for our communities to trust us to have that conversation to allay their fears and to encourage the decision to get vaccinated,” Dr. Villanueva said.

Along similar lines, friends and families are seen as potential influencers who can stress the need for vaccination.

In terms of access, government officials and various businesses continue to employ various measures to encourage vaccinations among the public.

These efforts are likely to increase with the growing surge in COVID-19 cases.

But health officials also warn that vaccinations are not all that’s needed. They stress, too, the importance of wearing face masks and using social distancing to protect individuals, families and communities.

Time will tell what impact these efforts will have on vaccination numbers in Richmond and beyond. But many are committed to stemming the impact of COVID-19 in Black and brown communities and closing the racial gaps in health care generally.

“Together we can, we absolutely must and we will do this,” Dr. Villanueva said. “I firmly believe in the power of the collective, and we need this collective to surmount the pandemic.”