St. Clair County vaccination site won’t be the last to get support from National Guard

The adjutant general for the Illinois National Guard visited the mass COVID-19 vaccination site at the Belle Clair Fairgrounds on Wednesday, the site’s third day of operations.

Maj. General Richard Neely has visited about 10 of the 16 vaccination sites in the state that are being supported by the National Guard. The site in St. Clair County is the first in southern Illinois, but Neely said it won’t be the last.

The East Side Health District location will be up in the next few days, Neely said. He didn’t have additional details about when or where, but he said the National Guard was also looking at creating mobile sites to serve some of Illinois’ rural communities downstate.

The East Side Health District is headquartered in East St. Louis. It covers communities in East St. Louis Township, Centreville Township, Canteen Township and Stites Township.

Logistically, Neely said it was easier for the National Guard to come in to support mass vaccination sites than the smaller sites seen elsewhere in the metro-east.

“We have very few medical providers within the National Guard … but they manage logistics extremely well,” Neely said. “We’re built for these kinds of large capacity challenges.”

Just under 1,000 people had appointments for Wednesday, said Herb Simmons, executive director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency. The site is planning to serve up to 1,000 people a day, but Simmons said the site could handle more if they were given more doses of the vaccine.

The Belle Clair Fairgrounds uses a drive-up system, where people can stay in their cars while they’re registered, checked in, vaccinated and then monitored for at least 15 minutes for side effects or adverse reactions to the vaccine. There’s also nurses working inside to vaccinate people who couldn’t drive themselves.

It’s one of the only sites Neely has seen with both indoor and outdoor setups.

“This is exceptional,” he said of the drive-up system. “It’s all about how you can move a large amount of traffic through a particular area, and I think this set-up is fantastic.”

There are 53 guardsmen working onsite, in addition to nurses and other staff.

Depending on the day, people could be vaccinated with either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine. There’s a system in place to keep track of which people got which vaccine, so they can make appointments for the appropriate version of the second dose, depending on when they’re notified of when vaccines are to be shipped to the site.

Guardsmen and other staff told Neely during his tour of the site that the biggest holdup in the process has been registration, since people don’t always know how to register online.

St. Clair County residents can sign up to be notified for when they’re able to be vaccinated on the health department’s website or call (618) 277-6600 for assistance.

This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 5:37 PM.