Westmoreland water authority offers site for mass vaccine, but no takers

The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County is offering its warehouse in New Stanton as a site for covid-19 vaccinations. The site is close to a Pennsylvania Turnpike exit and has plenty of parking.

The only problem is that the large providers — UPMC, Allegheny Health Network, Giant Eagle and others — do not have any vaccines for such an initiative, Michael Kukura, the authority’s resident manager, told the authority board Wednesday.

“We’re happy to open it up to the public,” in addition to its own employees, Kukura said.

Since the covid restrictions were implemented a year ago, Kukura said about 80 of the authority’s 320 employees have been impacted by the coronavirus — either having been infected or having to remain in quarantine because of close contact with someone who had the virus. He said 20 to 30 of those employees actually were ill with the virus.

Some authority employees have been able to get their covid vaccines on their own, Kukura said. Municipal authority employees remain classified as being in Phase 1C of the vaccine rollout.

The state remains in Phase 1A, which targets health care workers, long-term care residents, people over age 65, teachers, child care workers and people 16 to 64 with certain health conditions that put them at high risk if they get covid.

The lack of vaccines in Westmoreland County has been a running complaint that has frustrated county officials. The state’s covid vaccine website indicates 120,048 vaccines have been administered in the county, including about 80,000 initial shots, as of Wednesday.

Barry Ciccocoppo, a state health department spokesman, could not be reached for comment.

Excela Health is having a mass vaccination in North Huntingdon beginning Thursday at the former Galaxy Fitness building near the Excela Square at Norwin, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Carol Fox said.

Mark Sevco, UPMC Children’s Hospital president and the director of vaccine deployment for UPMC, reiterated Kukura’s observations that it is the lack of vaccines that is delaying vaccinations.

The health department allocates the vaccines to hospitals in the state, Sevco said.

“We have not had large vaccine deployment,” Sevco said, although the state is distributing more vaccines it received from the federal government.

AHN has provided more than 170,000 doses of vaccine, focused on those in Phase 1A who are most vulnerable to the virus. It has had mass vaccinations throughout Western Pennsylvania, including underserved areas, and people from Westmoreland County have attended those clinics, said Daniel Laurent, AHN spokesman.