Greater Latrobe school district staff members who lined up on Saturday to get complicated vaccines said the shots gave some hope that the pandemic could come to an end.
“I was delighted,” said Renee Gyory, a secretary and one of the first district workers to be vaccinated. “It’s positive, it’s what we need. The sooner everyone is vaccinated, the sooner we can move on to normal life. ”
The district vaccinated 200 employees on Saturday, hoping to vaccinate another 200 next week.
“It’s a big, big relief, as you can imagine,” Superintendent Georgia Teppert said. “It simply came to our notice then. We still can not wait, because you still have to wear your mask, you still have to take social distance, but it’s a light at the end of the tunnel. ‘
Teppert has not been vaccinated due to the limited doses available. According to Assistant Superintendent Mike Porembka, more than 400 staff members from the district said they wanted to receive the vaccine, but the pharmacy The Medicine Shoppe in Latrobe had only 200 doses.
Many staff members agreed to wait, Porembka said. Of those included in the first wave, priority was given according to age, and older staff members were first.
“We were hoping that before we went back and went back to school, we could have something available to ward off or reduce the impact (of the virus),” said James Shawley, a guardian. which has been vaccinated. “I think it’s a sign that our country is finally climbing out of this slump in which we find ourselves, and that we may be able to return to normal.”
‘Wild West’ during vaccination
Greater Latrobe is one of the few school districts that could get vaccinated. School employees are vaccinated in phase 1B – the second phase of the state’s rollout plan. The state is still in phase 1A, which initially responded first, including medical workers and nursing homes.
However, some pharmacies had extra doses after administering vaccinations to their category 1A patients. According to the Department of Health, these pharmacies were allowed to proceed to Phase 1B.
Greater Latrobe worked with the Pennsylvania State Education Association and The Medicine Shoppe to receive vaccinations. Staff members of the Ligonier Valley School District were previously vaccinated by LVRx Pharmacy in Ligonier.
It will probably be more difficult to effect such transactions after the state expanded Phase 1A last week to include all residents aged 65 and older as well as all with certain health conditions.
Education officials say the lack of clear guidance from the state has made it frustrating for individual school districts struggling to go to pharmacies to get vaccinations.
“It’s become a kind of wild west of districts trying to take care of themselves with vaccination, and that’s not how it should be,” said Jason Conway, executive director of Westmoreland Intermediate Unit.
Due to the expansion of Phase 1A, most school districts will likely have to wait until more vaccinations are available, said Fritz Fekete, attorney coordinator in Southwest Pennsylvania.
“It’s very difficult, and there’s a lot of frustration about the availability because people want to go back to school,” he said. “I do not even know if you can call it a process, it’s chaotic.”
Jacob Tierney is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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