COVID-19 Vaccine In Pittsburgh: AHN Network Vaccinates Thousands At Second PNC Park Clinic
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- PNC Park played home to another Allegheny Health Network COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic Saturday.
3,500 people flocked to the stadium in waves. The 3,500 people vaccinated is believed the highest number of people vaccinated since the 1950s and 1,000 more people than their previous clinic.
As smaller pharmacies struggle to get their regular vaccine doses, AHN is vaccinating thousands of people at a time. One doctor says if it weren't for the slow rollout, it could be thousands more.
"We've been trying for a couple of months but once we got the number to call, we were in the luck of the draw I guess," said Diane Igims
"We're 84, we wanted it right away but couldn't get it right away, so this was fast for us," said Theresa Kostolansky.
It's a relief for many as their hometown clinics have none to spare because of the state's vaccine allocation shortage.
"Now I'm concerned when my wife can get the shot, when my kids can get the shot," said Dennis Lindsey. "There's a whole sequence that it has to go through."
But the shortage is something even felt by mass providers like the Allegheny Health Network.
"We do have it but there's still a limited number of vaccines available," said Dr. Imran Qadeer, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Allegheny General Hospital. "We could do much larger events, 10,000, 15,000 a day, but the vaccine is still in limited quantity."
This clinic expanding the 1A group that can get a shot and focusing on minority communities by zip code.
And with many still worried about getting their second dose in a timely manner, AHN says this first dose will not affect any second dose patients.
"As we receive more, we will do larger and larger outreach to the community and get as many people vaccinated as possible."
On Sunday AHN is taking their services up Interstate-79 where they plan to vaccinate more than 2-thousand people in Erie. They've also launched a scheduling portal to make it easier for everybody looking for a shot and you don't have to be one of their patients.