Greenbelt Metro Community Vaccination Center Site Lead Dave Zarnick (right) speaks with representatives from FEMA headquarters during a visit May 12. They are standing in the center's observation area. After receiving their vaccinations, people wait between 15 and 30 minutes in the observation area to make sure they have no adverse reaction to the shot. SUBMITTED PHOTO

As of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 117,647,439 Americans had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or 35.4% of the country's population.

Helping to drive those numbers is Dave Zarnick Jr., a native of Butler Township who is site manager at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Greenbelt Metro Community Vaccination Center in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Set up in a parking lot northeast of Washington, D.C., Zarnick's site began running April 7 with the goal of administering 3,000 vaccines a day.

Zarnick said the center had administered more than 80,000 Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines since it became operational April 7.

“We're expected to administer the 100,000th vaccination later this week,” said Zarnick.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Friday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.