AHN Saint Vincent Targets High-Risk Senior Citizens for Clinic
History was made today as AHN Saint Vincent hosted the region's first large scale Covid-19 vaccination clinic.
Rita Brennan got her first dose of the vaccine today. She was pleased with how smooth the experience was, "It was really easy, I thought it was easier than the flu shot."
Brennan feels safer after getting her vaccine, especially since she helps take care of her husband. "I do all the grocery shopping and I go outside the house and so I feel he's safer now that I have the shot", said Brennan.
Over 200 staff members and volunteers made it possible to get over 2,000 people vaccinated on Sunday at the Erie Insurance Arena.
AHN partnered with other community leaders to make sure they targeted the most high-risk and vulnerable senior citizens in the area. AHN reached out to everyone to get them preregistered so no walk-ins were allowed.
Dr. Chris Clark, President of AHN Saint Vincent said he was overwhelmed with how well the event went.
"To deliver this many vaccines to so many people, it's just really really great. It's definitely incredible important that we are getting this vaccine to the right people, this is for seniors and we have done a lot of outreach to get the right people here", said Clark.
AHN wanted to reach different corners of the community including marginalize groups that often forgotten.
"What Allegheny Health Network did is make sure that our neighborhood centers had access to so many spots and they could get people tied in to these vaccines", said County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper.
AHN Saint Vincent thinks they met that goal getting as many shots has they could.
Mayor Schember saw first-hand how many people got vaccinated.
"There was one couple where the one person was scheduled and the wife was with him and they asked her, do you need it to and she said yes and they said if you qualify, we will give it to you as well and she did qualify, so both husband and wife go the vaccine, it's incredible to see this go on", said Schember.
Could more vaccine clinics be on the horizon?
County Executive Dahlkemper hopes so, "What we want to do is many many more of these vaccine clinic, what we need is more supply."