Rural vaccination pilot program to add 5 new counties
WHEATON - Following Thursday's announcement that all Illinois residents age 16+ will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting April 12, the State of Illinois is moving ahead with a mass vaccination expansion effort in the collar counties to enhance the efforts of local health departments to increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine. As part of the expansion plan, Governor JB Pritzker announced partnerships with DuPage and Kane Counties to launch mass vaccination sites.
The state is also announcing an expansion of its rural vaccination program, which successfully vaccinated more than 2,700 individuals in Fayette, Moultrie, and Shelby counties this past week. After an additional vaccination clinic in Clay County on Monday, the program will expand to five additional counties: Edwards, Lawrence, Cumberland, Edgar and Stephenson.
"Since day one, our Illinois COVID-19 Vaccination Plan has been an all-hands-on-deck effort, and as the national supply has expanded, so too has the number of locations Illinoisans can get vaccinated - already above 900, and growing," said Governor JB Pritzker. "Ahead of our expansion to universal adult eligibility on April 12th, I'm proud to launch expanded state operations in two critical areas of access: our high-density collar counties, and our one-stop shop vaccination clinics in rural communities. With nearly one in three adult residents already vaccinated, Illinois has made great progress to date in saving lives and ending this pandemic, and I'll deploy every available resource to get the entire state over that finish line as quickly as possible."
"We are incredibly pleased to be partnering with IDPH to expand access to COVID-19 vaccination. Our DCHD Community Vaccination Clinic has been administering vaccines since December, but like the rest of the state and country, we have been constrained by the limited vaccine supply available from the federal government," said Karen Ayala, Executive Director of the DuPage County Health Department. "This unique partnership will allow our clinic to operate at full capacity and offer more opportunities to get this life-saving vaccine to the residents of DuPage County and Illinois."
"This vaccination site makes a nice central hub for Kane County as staff and volunteers continue to provide vaccine in arms. We look forward to serving more in the future when our vaccine supply increases," said Kathy Fosser, Interim Executive Director of Kane County Health Department.
"The new vaccination site is going to vastly improve the ability of Kane County to vaccinate our citizens and workforce," said County Board Chairman Corinne Pierog. "Kane County is fully committed to serve our underserved populations that have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic and will be providing direct communication and access to vaccination for these communities by working with community partners like Pace, Township Offices, School Districts, and community organizations to help with appointments and transportation. We want to encourage everyone to get vaccinated and we will provide the resources and services to make that possible."
The state is partnering with DuPage County and deploying additional resources to create a joint-State/County mass vaccination site. This new collaboration will significantly expand the existing DuPage County operation and make this resource accessible to all Illinois residents. This effort builds on the successful joint-State/County testing site run in DuPage county in 2020. The state is also launching an additional mass vaccination site in Kane County, in partnership with the local health department, to vaccinate all eligible Illinoisans regardless of zip code. These additional sites in DuPage and Kane add on to National Guard missions in Lake and McHenry to further support vaccination efforts in the collar counties.
In collaboration with the Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Emergency Management Agency, Illinois National Guard and local health departments, site surveys are currently underway in multiple jurisdictions to identify locations suitable for vaccination clinics that will open to the public in the coming weeks.
In addition to the state's network of vaccination clinics, the Illinois National Guard is supporting local health departments with mobile vaccination teams to increase access in rural and underserved communities. At the direction of the local health department, mobile teams moved from site to site within a county to reduce travel barriers and increase accessibility. Currently, state supported mobile teams are operating in St. Clair, Southern Seven Health Department, Sangamon, Madison, Winnebago, Rock Island, McLean, Grundy, Vermilion, DeKalb, McHenry and Cook.
Rural Vaccination Pilot Program
After a successful pilot, the state's Rural Vaccination Program will continue in Moultrie County and Monday in Clay county offering the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This coming week, the program will expand to five additional counties: Edwards, Lawrence, Cumberland, Edgar and Stephenson.
Addressing travel distances is a key step in expanding access to healthcare in rural communities. This rural vaccination program will serve as a one-stop shop for eligible county residents, resulting in people getting vaccinated quicker, without the logistics and time commitment associated with coordinating a second trip, and ultimately saving lives.
Appointments for the rural vaccination pilot program can be obtained by contacting the local health department and are reserved for the residents of those counties.
There are now more than 900 vaccination locations in Illinois open to the public, and these locations can be viewed online at https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/. For those having difficulty navigating online services to make vaccination appointments, the Vaccine Appointment Call Center may be able to assist. This hotline is available seven days a week from 6:00 a.m. to midnight. Call agents' primary role is to help individuals navigate the various online registration sites. However, if the individual does not have access to online services or is unable to navigate the site, the call agent will make an appointment on the caller's behalf. The Vaccine Appointment Call Center phone number is 1-833-621-1284.
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