WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — For pharmacist Ed Christifano, vaccinating more than 25,000 people in the last year is personal.
“I cannot tell you the emotional toll as the administrator of the vaccines, someone that’s immunizing, to see that person have the fear of COVID in their eyes and then once they receive their vaccine, the calmness,” Christifano said.
Christifano owns Hayden’s Pharmacy in Youngwood.
He’s been at the forefront of fast-track vaccination clinics early on, immunizing as many as 1,300 people in one day.
“We do still see people coming in for their booster shots, as well as first and second shots, so we’re still doing that weekly,” he said.
Acting state health secretary Keara Klinepeter praised the work Hayden’s pharmacy has done and continues to do in a county where the vaccination rate is below the state average, at 57.7% being fully vaccinated.
“I am proud of the tireless work of the team here at Hayden’s Pharmacy, who’ve made COVID vaccines available in the community since they first received the vaccine in January 2021,” Klinepeter said.
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“I don’t think the time to take a step backwards is now. I think we do still need to (encourage) people who haven’t been boosted to go get boosted, we need people to keep wearing their masks in public regardless of vaccination status,” Klinepeter said.
She said while the state is seeing a drop in cases from 30,000 cases to just over 11,000 cases this week, she addressed the hesitancy some may be feeling in rural areas of the state, like Westmoreland County.
“Unfortunately, we’re not out of this yet and it really does take everybody’s part even in our rural counties — and especially in our rural counties. Our rural hospital frontline health care workers are struggling under this surge and it’s predominately the unvaccinated who are ending up in the hospital,” Klinepeter said.
“We want to educate people, let them understand what’s going on; they’re seeing the real effects of the last wave of the variant coming through, (and) maybe that’s the deciding factor to ... get the vaccine and make the right choice,” Christifano said.
The state is continuing to do nine rotating pop-up testing sites across the state.
You can find testing sites near you here: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Symptoms-Testing.aspx