St. Luke’s and Hispanic Center to Give Free COVID Vaccines Feb. 19

South Side Bethlehem neighbors and nearby residents, ages 65-years and older, are invited to receive a free COVID-19 vaccine shot during a two-day event at the Hispanic Center of the Lehigh Valley (HCLV), Feb. 19 & 20. Booster vaccines will be given in March and scheduled at the time of initial appointment setting.

This vaccination campaign is jointly offered by the HCLV and St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) to augment the number of persons of color who become vaccinated, currently a nationwide objective. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Center’s South Side Bethlehem facility, 502 East Fourth St., Bethlehem, PA 18105.

The vaccine will be administered by St. Luke’s nurses and nursing students, some of whom are bilingual. Registration is required to reserve a shot and can be made by calling 610-868-7800. Vaccines will be administered by appointment only.

“We are sponsoring this pilot vaccine event to engage our local community in receiving the vaccine in order to improve the health of our neighbors and reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” said Hispanic Center Executive Director, Victoria Montero, who also serves as St. Luke’s Manager, Health Equity Initiatives, Community Health and Preventive Medicine. Pending the response by the community to this event, she says, the organizations may plan another one at the Center.

A nonprofit organization, the Hispanic Center of the Lehigh Valley offers free educational, employment, recreational and medical services under one roof. It houses a Senior Center, food pantry, WIC and Social Service Program and co-located within HCLV’s facilities are Pinebrook Family Answers, CareerLink of the Lehigh Valley and St. Luke’s medical services.

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Media Contact:

Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 16,000 employees providing services at 12 hospitals sites and 300+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue in excess of $2.5 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.  Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 38 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 347 residents and fellows.  St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  U.S. News & World Report ranked St. Luke’s #1 in the Lehigh Valley and #6 in the state.  Three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals are St. Luke’s hospitals.  St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health eight times total and six years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.