HOLLIDAYSBURG — More than 20,000 Blair County residents have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination, county Director of Public Safety Mark Taylor told commissioners Tuesday.

With vaccination clinics ongoing and more planned in the future, Taylor said he’s pleased with the county’s progress.

“All in all, it’s good news on the vaccine front,” he said.

Six weeks ago, Taylor reported daily complaints that he and others were fielding from county residents frustrated by the inability to secure vaccinations.

At that same time, Commissioners Bruce Erb and Amy Webster were critical of the state for its role in what was a very slow distribution of vaccines. Even though the state Department of Health posted a website map of locations where COVID-19 vaccinations were to be available or become available, many people were directed to put their names on a wait list.

Webster said Tuesday that she is encouraged by recent COVID-19 reports and news of more people getting their vaccines.

Several local providers are administering vaccines now, Taylor said, to those in the state’s 1a group that includes long-term care residents, health care workers, those age 65 or older and those between 16 and 64 with health conditions. He said UPMC Altoona is working its way through a lengthy list of 1a registrants, giving about 200 to 300 vaccines daily at the Station Medical Center.

“There’s also meetings going on about setting up larger clinics and regional vaccination centers that would be able to vaccinate more people,” Taylor said.

Blair County has 121,829 residents based on 2019 census data.

In a recent address, Gov. Tom Wolf spoke of having all Pennsylvanians registered by May 1 for COVID-19 vaccines that would be administered by May 31.

“That’s aggressive, but they seem to have a plan in place for that,” Taylor said.

Leaders in some eastern counties, however, were questioning that target on Tuesday, pointing out that based on their anticipated vaccine supplies, they expect to be vaccinating residents into the summer.

Taylor also advised commissioners about a continuing concern that’s based on people “who don’t seem to want to get vaccinated.”

He told commissioners that people should “keep encouraging others to get vaccinated” and help them research the validity of their reasons.

“There are a lot of experts out there who can help you get information on why (getting vaccinated) is the right thing to do,” Taylor said.

The state Department of Health identifies vaccination as the best defense against COVID-19, which has killed 24,587 Pennsylvanians, including 305 in Blair County.

“We want to reach herd immunity,” Taylor said, using a term to describe a level when enough people are immune to a disease to make its spread unlikely.

“Everyone wants to get back to normal,” Taylor said. “The key to this is getting more and more people vaccinated.”

Erb also thanked Taylor for his ongoing efforts.

“Hopefully, light is at the end of the tunnel,” Erb said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 914-946-7456.