PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association has been hosting vaccination clinics this summer alongside street festivals, food fairs and any event where large numbers of people gather.
PRLA supports the state's restaurant and hospitality industry. Ben Fileccia with PRLA said the biggest detriment to that employment sector has been COVID-19. With the health of the industry directly related to vaccination percentages, they have been spending the summer trying to get those numbers up.
"We found street fairs. We found festivals. We found large events where we know there would be a lot of people there already, and the more people there, the better chance that we had of getting more shots," he said.
He said that as long as there are people who still need to be vaccinated across the state, they will continue to set up mobile clinics as part of their Vaccines for All program.
"At this point, we're getting about 2% of the crowd. So the larger the crowd that we have, the better the chance that we can get more shots in arms," said Fileccia.
"At each of these clinics, some of the numbers aren't great, but every vaccination helps us get one step closer. Every shot is important."
Fileccia said they also have a secondary goal of providing guidance and giving out proper health information. He shared that usually the number of people they reach depends on the size of the crowd.
"You know, some clinics may only do 15 shots. Some will do 50, but at this point, it's just trying to get as many people vaccinated as possible and that's our goal."
He said there are a number of reasons why Pennsylvanians might not yet be vaccinated, despite the wide availability of free COVID-19 vaccines.
"Some say because they already had COVID, they don't feel the need to get the vaccination, which is wrong. There's other folks that just feel that they're healthy and they could fight if they did get COVID," he said, "so our goal is to give the correct information, provide guidance."
As part of their goal to support the restaurant industry, Fileccia said they're doing what they can to incentivize people to roll up their sleeves for a shot.
"We purchased gift cards from various neighborhood restaurants, and anybody who gets a shot gets a free gift card," he said.
Fileccia explained that PRLA is also trying to target events to optimize vaccinations, like an upcoming movie night on Aug. 6 in Clark Park.
"They're going to be doing a screening of 'Black Panther,'" he said. "We're hoping to get a lot of 12- to 16-year-olds vaccinated."
A free pop-up clinic has also been scheduled for Thursday in Manayunk at their Stroll the Streets event.
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