PINCKNEYVILLE, Ill. (WSIL) -- Healthcare workers in Perry County want people to trade their masks, for the COVID-19 vaccination, with dozens of Pinckneyville Hospital staffers gathering out front Friday morning and in a symbolic gesture, tossed away their masks.
"And at Pinckneyville Community Hospital, we take COVID vaccination very seriously for our," says Hospital CEO Randy Dauby, as staffers call out: "Patients, Visitors, Co-workers," and others.
While you are still required to wear a mask inside the hospital, staff members there say they have dreamt of the day they could collectively toss the mask away, which they say arrives as more people get their shot.
As facemask fly into the air, the group sings out, "¾ÅÓÎÌåÓý Illinois. This is our Shot!"
Throughout the pandemic, Perry County experienced its share of severe COVID cases, says Respiratory Therapist Crystal Alfeldt.
She has 28 years with the hospital and says, "The worst flu year ever, that I can remember, we lost about three patients." Alfeldt never imagined she would see those numbers again, then COVID hit.
"We had, triple, four or five times as many patients coming through, we lost a lot of patients, we were transferring patients out," says Alfeldt. "I don't think the public realizes the severity, and that was here in Pinckneyville."
As with more vaccination clinics open than ever before, Alfeldt says for some, it is not enough.
"I think you're going to have to think out of the box and be creative to get that certain percentage of the population that is just not going to voluntarily get it, they're going to have to be creative," says Alfeldt.
Hospital CEO Randy Dauby says with masking becoming optional, now is the time for those still unvaccinated, and healthy to do so, to get their shot.
"It makes me proud as a CEO to know we have dedicated employees that want to be out here today and encourage people to get vaccinated," says Dauby. "That's so important that people do get their vaccination, don't put it off."
