UPMC continues our commitment to providing COVID-19 vaccines to health care workers who are not affiliated with a hospital or health care system, as well as individuals who are eligible under Pennsylvania's Phase 1a.

To date, UPMC has provided nearly 250,000 doses to these health care workers, people who are 65 or older, people 16-64 years old with underlying conditions that put them at high risk of COVID-19 complications, and employees. These efforts are helping to protect our communities against COVID-19 and helping to save lives.

UPMC is excited to announce a partnership with the Pittsburgh Penguins^® to provide COVID-19 vaccines to people in our communities.

The partnership kicked off on Monday at PPG Paints Arena, with another event planned later this week at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry.

These events are by appointment only. If you are eligible for the vaccine under Pennsylvania's Phase 1a criteria, you can sign up to receive a vaccine from UPMC at Vaccine.UPMC.com. This will allow us to contact you for an appointment once the vaccine is available to us.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued guidelines for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Those guidelines included very specific times where people who have been fully vaccinated can safely gather without masks and social distancing.

It is exciting to think of what life will look like once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. But we must continue to do everything we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect the people in our communities, especially those most vulnerable.

Please note: The updated guidelines apply only to fully vaccinated people, and only in narrow, specific situations. You are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after you get your final dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Even with these updated guidelines, it remains important for everyone — including people who are fully vaccinated — to follow preventive actions against COVID-19. That includes wearing masks and following social distancing protocols in public, when gathering with unvaccinated people from multiple households, and when gathering with unvaccinated people who are at higher risk for COVID-19.

For more about the new guidelines, and what "fully vaccinated" means, visit our HealthBeat blog.

UPMC is hosting a COVID-19 Tele-Town Hall at 5:30 p.m. EST Tuesday, March 16.

Graham Snyder, MD, medical director, Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology; Donald Yealy, MD, senior medical director and chair, Emergency Medicine; and MaCalus Hogan, MD, medical director, Outcomes, UPMC Wolff Center for Quality, Safety, and Innovation, will provide key updates on COVID-19 and vaccines. They also will take questions from participants.

To join the Tele-Town Hall, dial 855-962-0996 from your home or cell phone at 5:30 p.m. March 16.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized monoclonal antibodies as a treatment for some people with COVID-19. Learn more about how they work, and who is eligible to receive the treatment.

All three COVID-19 vaccines carry similar side effects, which are generally minor and typically go away within a few days. Learn more about what you may experience when you get the vaccine.

• UPMC Information on COVID-19
• Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus Update
• World Health Organization
• Pennsylvania Department of Health