Nate Smallwood | Tribune-Review
Pharmacist, Samar Khalil, holds a vile of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine while inoculating workers inside of Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg on Dec. 18, 2020.
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The Westmoreland County commissioners, bowing to public pressure and a growing frustration among residents, said Thursday they will create a county registry to assist residents to receive coronavirus vaccines.
“We are doing something at this point to assist and make sure that the residents of Westmoreland County who want a vaccine, when they are available to the general public, we will be there to provide it for them,” said Commissioner Sean Kertes.
Westmoreland County Prothonotary Christina O’Brien will not seek a fourth term in office.
O’Brien, 54, a Democrat from Ligonier Township, said ongoing health issues prevent her from participating in another campaign and serving four more years as the head of the county office that oversees all civil and domestic court filings.
“I’m a fighter, but I’m not physically able to do it,” O’Brien said.
She was diagnosed more than two decades ago with the autoimmune disease lupus and, over the years, worked through bouts of the illness. Since March, O’Brien has worked from home because of the additional risks to her health caused by a potential exposure to the coronavirus.
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It’s hard to prioritize whose work is more important than someone else’s at any time. Sidney Crosby might be the bright star of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but you can’t play hockey without the guy who drives the Zamboni over the ice, either.
The coronavirus pandemic can make those inevitable comparisons even more pronounced. The contributions of all those essential workers who keep the the world spinning are just that. Essential. We need the grocery store clerks, the fast food workers, the utility employees, the corrections officers. We need all the people who can be safely doing their jobs right now.
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When Kim Ward was sworn in as a Westmoreland County commissioner in 2008, one of her first questions was: Who oversees the county’s health department?
The former respiratory therapist was stunned to learn there wasn’t one.
Westmoreland, like 61 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, leaves the issue of public health to the state to handle. Only four cities statewide have their own health departments. That reality of the state’s public health infrastructure would come back to haunt and frustrate local officials 12 years after Ward asked her question, when the coronavirus pandemic arrived in early 2020.
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Most Westmoreland County employees won’t see additional pay this month for working during the covid-19 pandemic, but commissioners Thursday agreed to a bump in wages for workers from a private company providing care at the county-owned nursing home.
The pandemic pay was included in a contract extension with Dedicated Nursing Associates of Delmont to provide staff to assist with operations at Westmoreland Manor in Hempfield. Commissioners Sean Kertes and Gina Cerilli approved the extension through Jan. 30.
“It’s the only company that can supply us with nurses so, if we don’t have them, we won’t have enough staff to care for our residents at the Manor,” Cerilli said.