ALIQUIPPA Area residents had a shot at getting the COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic held at Central Outreach Wellness Center on Wednesday, but not many took it.
The clinic, which was organized in response to low vaccination rates in Beaver County, made 300 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine available to anyone eligible under Phase 1A and 1B of the vaccine rollout, and aimed to immunize the most marginalized area residents. However, those residents may not have been looking to get immunized.
From 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., when workers at Central Outreach were distributing first doses, only 69 people came in to get a shot.
Think about one year ago.
On Feb. 2, the Super Bowl was played in front of more than 62,000 fans packed into Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. A month later, 18,548 watched the Penguins play the Carolina Hurricanes on March 8 at PPG Paints Arena.
A few days after that, the NHL, NBA and NCAA basketball shut down completely.
Movie theaters, museums, live concert venues, schools, restaurants, bars just about any place where people gathered in public soon followed suit.
A deadly virus that took root in China in late 2019 swept the globe.
A ripple turned into a wave, sparing no one, sickening 114 million and killing more than 2.5 million worldwide, including 523,000 Americans and more than 24,000 Pennsylvanians.
In a year made so tough for so many reasons, people in Western Pennsylvania needed to trust their medical care more than ever before. Central Outreach Wellness Center is proud to say that they were not only able to continue providing culturally competent and inclusive care, but were able to grow, expand, and adapt to the needs of the year. Central Outreach’s main mission is still being a resource for care for underserved populations, particularly the LGBTQIA and HIV+ communities, and that continued in 2020. They saw and provided care for 1,459 trans and nonbinary patients, and 816 HIV+ patients, offering them all the competent care they deserve. And this extends past simply the people that Central Outreach sees in its different clinics. In 2020, they also launched their Street Outreach Program, offering care to those that don’t feel comfortable receiving it in a hospital or formal medical setting.
Ambridge honors shooting victims at vigil timesonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.