Chester County Hospital Vaccinated Hundreds Thursday and Friday

WEST CHESTER, PA — Chester County Hospital-Penn Medicine in West Chester received almost 2,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and began vaccinating its workers late last week.

Regina Anderson, who works in the Environmental Services Department at Chester County Hospital was the first front line employee to be vaccinated, according to Colleen Leonard Leyden, Director, Corporate Marketing and Public Relations for Chester County Hospital.

Chester County Hospital reported on Friday night that it had received just under 2,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the State of Pennsylvania on Thursday.

"Front line workers are our first priority," said Leyden. She said that beginning Thursday, and into Friday night, approximately 300 had received the vaccine.

Other frontline workers followed on Thursday and Friday including Jay Rothkoph, MD, a physician of Internal Medicine and a Hospitalist at Chester County Hospital.

"He, along with our many other nurses and clinicians, work one-on-one with our COVID patients providing excellent care," said Leyden.

She said, "As part of Penn Medicine, Chester County Hospital is proud to be participating in this historic event and to be part of the health system that pioneered the mRNA Vaccine Technology so essential in the development of the COVID vaccine."

As the vaccine rolled out, Chester County had seen 459 deaths from COVID-19, according to its latest update by the county department of health. West Chester has one of the highest case counts of any municipality in Chester County, and is among the highest for the percentage of its population testing positive for the coronavirus.

Across Pennsylvania, there are 548,489 COVID-19 cases reported by the state department of health and 13,924 deaths.

The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is on its way to Pennsylvania hospitals, the state health department reported Monday, saying hospitals would have the vaccine early this week.