As the state prepares to move into Phase 1b of vaccinations Monday, village officials are focused on making sure residents will have access to the vaccine.
“The village is working with its community partner, Tammy Prentiss, from District 86 to see if there is an opportunity to use the (Hinsdale Central High) school to have a vaccination site in town to do the distribution,” village manager Kathleen Gargano reported at Tuesday’s village board meeting. She said more information about the partnership will be available in the coming weeks.
Phase 1b includes residents 65 and older, frontline essential workers and prison inmates. Illinois has 1.3 million people who qualify as frontline essential workers and 1.9 million adults age 65 and older.
The village plans to add information to its website, https://www.villageofhinsdale.org, about vaccinations, along with a link to the DuPage County Health Department, in the near future. Residents who are interested in receiving a vaccine update can sign up there now at https://www.dupagehealth.org.
“Signing up for these updates is not a registration for a vaccine,” the website states. “However, signing up allows DCHD to communicate with you efficiently as opportunities to become vaccinated by providers all over the county become available.”
Gargano also suggested residents in appropriate groups call their doctor.
“Some of the larger groups, like DuPage Medical Group, they have been receiving vaccines and they are reaching out to their patients that fit the criteria,” she said.
Since the first vaccines were distributed on Dec. 14, efforts across the state have been focused on vaccinating health care workers and long-term care facility residents during Phase 1a.
In DuPage County, 43,935 vaccines have been administered, with 11,914 people fully vaccinated, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health website. That translates to about 1.3 percent of the county’s 928,589 residents.
In Cook County, about 92,700 vaccinations have been given, with 22,194 (.9 percent) residents fully vaccinated.
No county in Illinois is above 1.3 percent of residents fully vaccinated, with about half of the state’s 102 counties at or below .5 percent.
Statewide, about 47 percent of almost 1.09 million doses received have been administered. That does not include almost 304,600 doses allocated to long-term care facilities, of which almost 70,000 vaccinations have been given. Long-term care vaccinations — included those for ManorCare in Hinsdale — are being administered through a federal government pharmacy partnership program.
Out of Illinois’ 12.7 million residents, only about 108,500, or less than 1 percent, have been fully vaccinated.
Chicago health officials have announced that they expect Phase 1c, which includes additional essential workers and residents 16 and older with underlying health conditions, to begin March 19, and Phase 2, for all Chicagoans 16 and older, to begin May 31. The county health departments have not released any dates for future phases.
The state health department recommends that people who have already had COVID-19 plan to take the vaccine.
More information about the vaccine and the state’s vaccination plan is available at https://www.dph.illinois.gov.
