Westmoreland group holds prayer vigil for covid victims

A prayer vigil held in frigid temperatures Friday night to remember the 1,183 Westmoreland County residents who have died from covid served an additional purpose: to encourage the Westmoreland County commissioners they should allocate the $105.3 million in federal funds to help those in need and provide recovery and relief.

“The pandemic has brought disparity into the community. We need affordable health care … to optimize health care for all,” Ruth Tolbert, president of the Greensburg-Jeannette Chapter of the NAACP, told about 30 people who gathered outside the Westmoreland Courthouse in Greensburg. The event was sponsored by the Voice of Westmoreland, a community activist organization.

The covid pandemic has taken a particular toll on the Black community, in which people are two to three times more likely to die from covid because of pre-existing health conditions, Tolbert said.

“It’s time for us to implement legislation to close the (economic) disparity” in the nation, Tolbert said.

Candles were lit as part of the vigil, and a bell was rung to remember those who have died from covid.

Michael Pardus, a founder of Voice of Westmoreland, reminded the crowd they should celebrate the health care workers who have persevered through the pandemic because they “have done so much for our community.”

An Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital physician, one physician “made it her mission to sit and hold the hands of dying covid patients in the early days of covid,” when family members were not permitted to be at their bedside, said Victoria Campbell of North Huntingdon, a Voice of Westmoreland member.

Campbell told stories about some of those 1,183 Westmoreland victims of covid, who are so missed by family members.

Nancy Ferace died Oct. 15, 2020, just six days before she was to celebrate her 96th birthday. Ferace, according to her daughter, Susan Witt, died in a nursing home only 12 days after testing positive for covid-19.

Malford Wade has suffered a triple loss because of covid, Campbell said. Wade lost her mother, Grace Wade of New Kensington, in November, her brother-in-law on Jan. 13 and her sister on Jan. 18.

“This has been too tough. I’m broken,” Wade said in a statement.

The event was timed to be held before the Westmoreland County commissioners make a decision on how to spend the first portion of the $105.3 million in funding provided by the federal American Rescue Plan, said Bob Mason, a member of Voice of Westmoreland.

The commissioners are expected to make a decision by the end of the month on allocating the first installment of its American Rescue Plan funding.