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New initiative helping vaccinate thousands of teachers from 3 local counties

WASHINGTON CO., Pa. — In the race to vaccinate Pennsylvania teachers, there is a new “intermediate unit” that will help several different communities.

About 1,400 teachers and school staff from three counties -- Washington, Fayette and Greene -- spent the past few days getting vaccinated at California Area High School, and those helping to organize these mass clinics for employees said this is a step in the right direction for getting kids back into classrooms.

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“This has been a huge blow to our communities with parents not able to work, and we’re looking forward to getting all of our students back soon,” said Dr. Donald Martin, executive director of Intermediate Unit 1.

The intermediate unit helped pull together this initiative of getting teachers vaccinated at mass clinics outside of the popular ones in Pittsburgh.

The unit was allocated 3,000 doses from the state, and they pulled 12-hour shifts over the weekend to get doses into the arms of teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and anyone else in the school who registered.

“There’s light at the end of the proverbial tunnel when it comes to getting all these folks vaccinated,” Martin said.

The intermediate unit hopes to have the majority of the group vaccinated by the end of the week.