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Staff at the Grand Latrobe School District who lined up on Saturday to be vaccinated against covids said the vaccines gave them a silver lining that the pandemic could come to an end.
“I was thrilled,” said Renee Gyory, a secretary and one of the first district staff to get the vaccine. “It’s positive, that’s what we need. The sooner everyone is vaccinated, the sooner we can move on to a normal life. ”
The district vaccinated 200 workers on Saturday, hoping to vaccinate about 200 more next week.
“It’s a huge relief, as you can imagine,” said Superintendent Georgia Teppert. “It’s another security measure. We still can’t let our guard down because you still have to wear your mask, you still have to move away socially, but it’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Teppert has not been vaccinated due to the limited doses available. More than 400 district staff have said they are interested in receiving the vaccine, according to Deputy Superintendent Mike Porembka, but the Medicine Shoppe pharmacy in Latrobe only had 200 doses.
Many of the staff agreed to wait, Porembka said. Among those included in the first wave, priority was given by age, with older staff members being the first.
“We were hoping that before the kids came back and we were actively going back to school, we were going to be able to have something to avoid or lessen the impact (of the virus),” said James Shawley, a caretaker who s is vaccinated. “I think this is a sign that our country is finally coming out of this slump we are in, and that we may be able to get back to normal.”
The “ Wild West ” in the hunt for vaccines
Greater Latrobe is one of the few school districts that have been able to get vaccinated. School employees are expected to be vaccinated in phase 1B – the second stage of the state’s deployment plan. The state is still in Phase 1A, which initially included first responders, medical staff and nursing home patients.
However, some pharmacies had extra doses after administering vaccines to their Category 1A patients. These pharmacies have been cleared to move to phase 1B, according to the state health ministry.
Greater Latrobe worked with the Pennsylvania State Education Association and The Medicine Shoppe to receive vaccines. Ligonier Valley School District staff have previously been vaccinated by the LVRx Pharmacy in Ligonier.
Offers like this will likely be harder to find after the state last week expanded Phase 1A to include all residents 65 and older as well as anyone with certain health conditions.
Education officials say the lack of clear state guidelines has made it frustrating for individual school districts struggling to make deals with pharmacies to get vaccines.
“It’s become a kind of wild west of districts trying to fend for themselves in terms of vaccination, and that’s not how it’s supposed to 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 vaccines are more widely available, said Fritz Fekete, Southwestern Pennsylvania advocacy coordinator for the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
“It’s very difficult and there is a lot of frustration about availability, because people want to go back to school,” he says. “I don’t 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 .
Categories:
Coronavirus | Local | Top stories | Westmoreland
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