Harding renews call for vaccination and mask consideration

LOCK HAVEN, PA – Citing increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases and “exhausted staff” at area health care facilities, Clinton County Commissioner Angela Harding renewed her call for vaccinations and masking for county residents.

Speaking at the Thursday county commissioners meeting, Harding said the local COVID Coalition group met on Wednesday and learned that staff at UPMC, Geisinger and the Bucktail Medical Center are “all suffering from exhausted staff and lack of facility space due to the high rise of COVID numbers and the people being hospitalized.”

She urged community members to “make the right decision to get the case numbers back down… and if that for you means getting vaccinated and wearing masks” to reduce the COVID numbers in the community. She said there are currently 191 active cases of COVID within the county, there are patients on ventilators, there have been two recent deaths due to COVID and the incidence of cases among young people is rising. Her message came the same day the state announced 31 new cases in Clinton County, the highest one-day amount since April.

Clinton County lags behind much of the state in the percentage of its residents who have been vaccinated.