Westmoreland first responders flocking to Latrobe pharmacy for coronavirus vaccine

First responders around Westmoreland County have started getting inoculated against the coronavirus with help from The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Latrobe.

Owner and pharmacist Sue Schropp said the response in the last couple weeks has been overwhelming, but she’s happy to contribute to the health of the community’s front lines.

“We are fully booked for the next couple weeks,” she said.

The Medicine Shoppe is the only pharmacy in the county to get doses of the vaccine from the state health department, according to distribution data. Excela Health started inoculating employees at its three hospitals in mid-December and plans to expand the offering to independent providers in the coming weeks, according to chief medical officer Dr. Carol Fox.

Outside of hospitals in Allegheny County, a dozen pharmacies and health care centers have received the vaccine, according to state distribution data.

The state’s vaccination plan calls for health care workers and those in long-term care facilities to be immunized first. Those inoculations started last month. In the second part of the first phase of vaccines, first responders such as police and firefighters can get the shot.

Don Thoma, chief of Adamsburg Fire Department in Hempfield, got his first dose Thursday. Township firefighters are able to get vaccinated at The Medicine Shoppe with the assistance of Mutual Aid Ambulance Service, according to township manager Jason Winters and Anthony Kovacic, Hempfield Fire Department chief and director of emergency services.

“In the last year … I’ve got a flu shot, a pneumonia shot, a shingles shot, so I’m going to get this one,” said Thoma, who contracted the virus last year. “We’re exposed to it every time we go to help the public.”

Greensburg Police Capt. Shawn Denning also was in line for his first shot Thursday. The department’s 26 officers can schedule an appointment with the pharmacy if they were interested in being immunized, which Denning said he believed most were in favor of it.

While he respects that it is a personal decision, seeing public figures be inoculated and a high level of interaction with residents were factors in making an appointment.

“I mainly chose to get the vaccine so that I can protect others and along with myself,” he said.

The Medicine Shoppe has gotten about 200 doses of the Moderna vaccine so far, Schropp said. She’s hoping to get 300 more next week. The vaccines are open to health care providers that aren’t eligible to get one through Excela Health and first responders, including deputy coroners.

“We have had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of calls from first responders,” she said.

She completed “mounds of paperwork” that was sent to the state Department of Health to become a vaccine provider. But calls from regular citizens wanting to get inoculated have had to be turned away for now — Pennsylvania is still in the first of a three-phase vaccine plan that prioritizes health care workers, those who can’t work remotely and others.

Officials have said it could be months before the vaccine is available to the general public.

Lorenzo Garino, director of emergency operations with Mutual Aid, will be fully protected when he gets his second dose on Friday at Excela Health Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant. Mutual Aid employees were offered the vaccine through Excela Health, Highlands Hospital in Connellsville, The Medicine Shoppe and Select Specialty Hospital in Latrobe.

Nearly 200 employees who work directly with patients have been inoculated, he said. It was a huge relief for many after the stress borne by the pandemic in 2020. Virus-related calls skyrocketed for many ambulance services from October to December.

”We’re just very thankful to all of those hospitals and the pharmacy for what they’ve been able to do for us,” he said.