Pirates, AHN hold mass vaccination clinic

PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates helped play a part in the fight against COVID-19 on Saturday, when PNC Park became the site of a mass vaccination clinic.

The Pirates hosted the Allegheny Health Network (AHN), who carried out the vaccinations from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Home Run Club at PNC Park. According to Pirates president Travis Williams, AHN was slated to vaccinate 2,300 individuals who are 75 years and older in the high-risk population, which he said made the event the first mass vaccination clinic in the Pittsburgh region.

The impetus for the drive, Williams said, stemmed from a conversation between him and team owner Bob Nutting about helping the team at AHN expand their ability to distribute the vaccine.

“But [this] didn’t come together very easily," Williams said. "It was with a lot of effort between our folks here at PNC Park as well as all of our friends at AHN and Highmark. [It was] a coordinated effort between multiple different departments -- facilities, events, pharmacies, doctors -- all of that pulled together in order to be able to put on this event."

With the clinic on Saturday, PNC Park became one in a long list of MLB parks serving as vaccination sites. Williams said the Pirates will stay abreast of the vaccine's supply in the region so the organization can pitch in and help hold more events like this in the future.

"It’s great, because this is a great trial run for us to be able to do more events like this for the region," Williams said. "We’d love to be able to do more as soon as the supplies become available, more vaccines become available. We’ll be working with our friends at AHN to put that on and do larger mass distribution events.”

“AHN, Highmark Health and the Pittsburgh Pirates have a long history of working together in various ways to promote the health and wellbeing of the greater Pittsburgh community and its residents,” said Cynthia Hundorfean, AHN's president and CEO. “We are extremely grateful to the Pirates for aiding our community’s response to the pandemic by opening PNC Park as an additional AHN vaccination clinic site that will help us to vaccinate a larger number of people in our region over the coming weeks and months as more vaccine supply becomes available.”