Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter, left, speaks with Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Hegstrom, center, and Chief Administrator Kirk Thomas during her visit the hospital’s COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic Wednesday afternoon in Lewistown. Klinepeter stressed the importance of vaccinations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

LEWISTOWN — Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Get tested if you don’t feel well. The state’s Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter emphasized these points of information Wednesday during her visit to Geisinger-Lewistown’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic.

This hospital was Klinepeter’s second stop of the day after a visit to the AMI Expeditionary Healthcare (AMI) Centre County COVID-19 testing site in State College.

During her visit, the secretary of health encouraged Pennsylvanians to get tested for COVID-19 if they are experiencing symptoms or who have been exposed to someone who has the virus.

Klinepeter also encourages people to not only get fully vaccinated, but also to get the appropriate pediatric and booster vaccines.

“Our rural hospitals are really experiencing an incredible surge in utilization and so it’s important that everybody in the community do their part to be supportive of our frontline healthcare workers especially in our rural communities,” Klinepeter said.

Klinepeter received a tour of the clinic and had a chance to speak with Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital’s Chief Administrator Kirk Thomas and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Hegstrom.

“I’m just excited that she took time to come out and see the work that the team has done and recognize the team here. There has been a lot of really good work done in the tent (vaccination clinic) and I give all the credit to the teams and the frontline staff,” Thomas said.

Dr. Hegstrom added that Klinepeter’s visit gave the staff a chance to thank the state of Pennsylvania for all the help they have given the hospital during the pandemic.

Mifflin County Commissioners Kevin Kodish and Rob Postal were also in attendance for the acting secretary’s visit. Kodish said that the commissioners were very happy Klinepeter saw it fit to visit Mifflin County and the Geisinger-Lewistown facility.

“We’re very appreciative of their assistance with us getting testing sites at the fire school.” Kodish said, “The Geisinger system has been overwhelmed here with people wanting tests. Our testing sites have really taken some of that pressure away. So, they (Geisinger-Lewistown) are able to breathe a little bit and see other people who have other ailments.”

Kodish went on to say the commissioners are doing what they can at the county level to alleviate some of the work for the hospital.

“Our vaccination status isn’t what we had hoped it would be, but it is getting better all the time so we encourage people who got the regular vaccination to make sure to get the booster,” Commissioner Postal said. He added that it was encouraging to see people from different age groups in the clinic getting the vaccine.

“It’s important to get the word out to rural Pennsylvania. It’s great that she’s here representing the Wolf administration and we’ll see. We’ll get our vaccinations up,” Postal said.

According to data provided by Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital, 28 COVID-19 patients are in the hospital with five in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and three on ventilators. COVID positive patients make up 32% of the hospital’s occupied beds.

Within the entire Geisinger hospital system, 365 COVID-19 patients are in beds and 293 (80.3%) of the 365 patients are not fully vaccinated. 70 patients are in the ICU and 61 (87%) of the 70 patients are not fully vaccinated. 45 patients are currently on ventilators with 41 (91%) patients who are not fully vaccinated.