CANONSBURG, Pa. — The mayor of Canonsburg said they want to do everything they can to control the spread of COVID-19 in their city, including more testing, and are hoping they will soon get the vaccine.
Amid a rise in cases in Washington County, Mayor David Rhome announced that no-cost PCR testing was available for the community.
“Our hopes were that this would go away, but it doesn’t appear it’s that close to the horizon that it’s gonna happen,” Rhome said.
Last week, the percent positivity rate was 8.7%, and Rhome said the cases have gone up since then. COVID-19 variants have driven testing positivity to over 20%, according to the mayor’s Facebook post.
Dr. Tariq Cheema, the division director of critical and pulmonary care with Allegheny Health Network, said he’s not surprised to see a rise in cases in a small town.
“The tighter knit the community is, the higher risk of spread bc everyone knows each other in Canonsburg. Most people do. People shop at the same areas, go to the same restaurants,” he said.
Mayor Rhome has been advocating for his town, not only with testing, but he also hopes to utilize Canonsburg’s mass vaccination site at Saint Patrick’s Church. But they haven’t received any vaccine.
“We cannot get the product to be able to help vaccinate our residents and other residents here in Washington County,” Rhome said. “Every resident needs to have the opportunity to be vaccinated. Whether it’s small town USA or the big towns, I think we all need to be treated fairly.”
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