This church opened a vaccine clinic after 6 of its members died of COVID-19 in 2 weeks

Pastor George Davis at Impact Church in Jacksonville decided to open up a vaccination clinic at his church after six members died from COVID-19 in the last two weeks, CNN reports.

• The six people who died were unvaccinated against COVID-19, Davis said, according to CNN.
• “We’ve had now six members of our church over the course of a couple weeks now that have passed away from COVID,” said Davis during a service over the weekend, per CNN. “It has just absolutely ripped our hearts apart. The most recent one was actually a young lady on our worship team.”

Davis told WJXT-TV that four of the people who died were under 35 years old. All of them, he said, were healthy individuals as well. However, none of them had gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.

• “It’s pain,” Davis told WJXT. “These are actual people that I know, that I have pastored. One 24-year-old kid, I’ve known him since he was a toddler.”

Moreover, Davis said 12 to 20 members of the church were in the hospital battling COVID-19. And 10 members were dealing with the coronavirus at home. Davis told WJXT that the people did not get COVID-19 while at church.

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

This cautionary tale of the novel coronavirus comes as the delta variant is ripping through Florida, causing records in hospitalizations and cases, as I wrote for the Deseret News.

• In fact, Florida has become the epicenter of the coronavirus surge right now, per NPR.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 23,903 new coronavirus cases in Florida on Friday alone.

Hospitals in Jacksonville and Orlando broke their pandemic peaks for hospitalizations last week.

• “We have peaked above any previous wave and it is straining our system, our physicians and all of our clinicians,” said Neil Finkler, chief clinical officer of AdventHealth’s Central Florida division, according to USA Today.