COVID-19 vaccine brought to ‘under-resourced communities’

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

Hundreds of people who live in McKeesport and surrounding Mon Valley communities got their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday during a “community vaccine clinic for under-resourced communities” at UPMC McKeesport.

Dr. Tracey Conti, executive vice chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and program director for UPMC McKeesport’s family medicine residency program, said she’s been working at the McKeesport hospital to ensure area residents have access to a COVID-19 vaccine.

“Not everybody is able to get to some of the main clinics” or special vaccination events in places like the South Side or Penn Center in the Monroeville/Wilkins Township area, she said.

“Sometimes, especially in the Mon Valley, some of our patients are left out from transportation or access issues, and so we want to make sure that there’s a focus on patients that have disadvantages of accessing vaccine,” Conti said.

She said some Valley residents don’t have access to the internet, which makes it difficult to sign up for COVID-19 vaccine registries. She has required them to try to sign up over the phone or seek assistance from community providers and organizations.

Conti said the hospital aimed to administer about 400 first doses during the clinic, and as of 1 p.m. she thought the clinic was on target to reach the goal.

“Today was just the first step,” Conti said. “Today was just us taking people who were already on the vaccination list for UPMC and saying, ‘We’re going to have another event to try to target the McKeesport and surrounding communities in order to start getting them in to be served.’”

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