When will everyone get a COVID vaccination in southwest IL? Get your questions answered
Four weeks into the execution of Illinois’ COVID-19 vaccination plan, nearly 4% of the state’s total population has been vaccinated. Gov. J.B. Pritzker says things will improve, but the day anyone can get a vaccine dose is still down the road.
How many people in the metro-east have been vaccinated? Are more people becoming eligible, and when can you expect to get your vaccine?
Here are answers to questions you may have about the COVID-19 vaccine roll out in southwestern Illinois:
What COVID vaccination phase are we in?
Q. What vaccination phase are we in now in our region, and how many people in that group have been fully vaccinated?
A. The entire metro-east region is currently in the 1B vaccination phase. However, while supplies are limited, only select groups are eligible to receive the vaccine. The region includes St. Clair, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, Bond, Washington and Clinton counties.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made recommendations to states about how they could decide to prioritize people based on their risk of exposure to the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and their risk of severe illness from the disease.
Front-line health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff members became eligible in Illinois’ first round of phased distribution, called Phase 1A. People in that group who opted out can still get the vaccine in future phases if they change their minds.
As of Friday, 26,375 people in the 1A and 1B groups had been vaccinated in the metro-east, or roughly 3.99% of the seven-county region’s population. St. Clair County had fully vaccinated a total of 9,391 people, more than any other county in the metro-east.
Phase 1B started Jan. 25 statewide and the second part of the phase began this week, which added individuals ages 16 to 64 who have underlying medical conditions. Vaccinations in this group are by appointment only. The following people are currently eligible in 1B:
People who are 65 years old and older
Firefighters
Law enforcement officers
911 workers
Security personnel
Teachers, principals and school support staff members
Daycare workers
Food and agriculture workers
Manufacturing workers
Corrections workers and inmates
U.S. Postal Service workers
Public transit workers, including those who work for ride-sharing services
Grocery store workers
Staff members at homeless shelters and women’s shelters
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Pulmonary disease
- Heart conditions
- Chronic kidney disease
- Cancer
- Immunocompromised state from a solid organ transplant
- Sickle cell disease
- Pregnancy
- Persons with a disability
During a visit to the mass vaccination clinic in St. Clair County this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker promised his administration is fighting to get as many vaccines as possible from the federal government for Illinois, and attempted to explain why the process is still so frustratingly slow.
“Overall our progress to date is something everyone should be proud of. That doesn’t mean getting an appointment for a vaccine hasn’t been a frustrating experience. It doesn’t mean that it isn’t frustrating for me as governor to not have enough supply coming into the state,” Pritzker said. “We’ve all had to be patient and wait our turn.”
The governor repeated the same arguments he has made in recent weeks: the Trump administration failed to produce a cohesive plan; Illinois decided on a slower rollout to get to as many people in early vaccine eligibility phases as possible; distribution of the vaccine is based on a county’s population and need.
He promised things will improve under President Biden’s leadership, and said Illinois will receive 500,000 doses next week. Pritzker pointed to the possible approval of the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine later this month.
But the day when anyone can get a vaccine is still “a long way off,” he said, and like other officials, Pritzker doesn’t know when manufacturing of the vaccine will increase enough to allow for a return to normal.
What if I haven’t been contacted?
Q. I registered in my county to be eligible to take the vaccine weeks ago and still haven’t heard back from anyone. What should I do?
A. Health care officials from across the region have urged people who are waiting to get an appointment to be patient because they are scheduled based on vaccine supply, plus officials have to verify each person’s eligibility.
In St. Clair County, Emergency Management Agency Director Herb Simmons said he knows people really want their shots, but the county is heavily reliant on the state when it comes to vaccinations. He said if there was an unlimited supply, the county would vaccinate as many people as possible each day.
In Madison County, Amy Yeager, the health department’s director of community health and public relations, said the county hopes to vaccinate more people later this month when aid from the National Guard arrives. However, Yeager also said the speed at which people receive their vaccination largely depends on the supply.
Officials in both counties recommend signing up through several different vaccine providers, if you are eligible, to improve your chances of getting your appointment sooner, rather than later. Simmons added that if you receive your vaccine from one vaccine provider, you should notify any other you signed up with, so they can remove you from their list of people waiting for their shots.
How late can I get my second COVID shot?
Q: If I get my second dose more than 30 days after my first dose, will it still work?
A. If you are struggling to find an appointment for a second shot or had to cancel due to recent weather, don’t fret. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says they recommend getting your second dose within 21 to 28 days, but not anytime earlier.
However, if that isn’t feasible and missing that time frame is “unavoidable,” the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may be administered up to six weeks, or 42 days, after the first dose. The CDC says it’s too early to tell if the efficacy of the vaccine is affected by the timing of the shots, but noted there is no need to restart your series of doses, even if the second shot is received after 42 days have passed from the first shot.
How do I set up an appointment?
Q. How do I set up an appointment for a shot?
A. As of Feb. 13, 12 local Walgreens locations are setting up appointments for those eligible in Phases 1A or 1B, according to the state’s vaccine locator at coronavirus.illinois.gov. The locations are:
5890 North Belt West in Belleville
6505 N. Illinois St. in Fairview Heights
704 Cambridge Blvd. in O’Fallon
401 Belt Line Road in Collinsville
102 W. Vandalia St. in Edwardsville
1650 Washington Ave. in Alton
1201 Camp Jackson Road in Cahokia
515 Carlyle Ave. in Belleville
2532 N. Illinois St. in Swansea
5939 Belleville Crossing St. in Belleville
2510 State St. in East St. Louis
1108 Hartman Lane in Shiloh
Anyone in the metro-east who is eligible to receive the vaccine can set up a vaccination appointment with Walgreens online at walgreens.com/findcare/vaccination/covid-19. You’ll have to create an online account. The pharmacy isn’t setting up appointments over the phone.
Additionally, CVS announced its Belleville location at 4609 W. Main is now offering appointments. However, as of Friday, Feb. 19, all of the location’s appointments were booked. To check availability, visit www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine.
Local health departments and hospitals are also facilitating appointments.
These are the ways to let a county health department or hospital know you want to set up a COVID-19 vaccine appointment:
St. Clair County: County residents can fill out the COVID-19 Notification for Vaccine Availability form online at health.co.st-clair.il.us to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (If you don’t have internet access or need help signing up, call the health department at 618-825-4447.)
In East St. Louis, residents 65 years and older can call the East Side Health District at 618-271-8722 to make an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Madison County: The health department has launched an online appointment scheduler on its website at https://www.co.madison.il.us/departments/health where people who did not fill out the county’s vaccine survey in January can schedule their appointments. As of Friday, all appointments were filled. Limited appointments are available, and County Health Department Director Toni Corona said more dates and appointments as resources and doses are available. Those without computer access should call 618-650-8445.
Clinton County: County residents and people who work in the county can fill out the Clinton County, IL Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Registry online at clintoncountyhealth.com or call the health department at 618-594-6622 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for people who are eligible in phases 1A or 1B. You don’t need to fill out the form if you already called to get on the waitlist.)
Monroe County: County residents can sign up for the phone and email alert system CodeRED. Notifications will include the date and time of the county’s vaccination clinics, as well as which residents are eligible to seek appointments.
Randolph County: County residents can call the health department at 618-826-5007 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older.)
Bond County: County residents and people who work in the county can fill out the Bond County, IL Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Registry online at bchd.us to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for people who are eligible in phases 1A or 1B. You do not need to fill out the form if you already called the health department to get on the waitlist.)
Washington County: Call the health department at 618-327-3644 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older.)
BJC HealthCare: Preregistration for a vaccination appointment is available online at bjc.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines. You don’t have to be a current patient of BJC HealthCare to get vaccinated, but you do have to be a resident of either Illinois or Missouri. BJC will contact people to set up appointments when they become eligible and when supplies are available. The hospital system notes on its website that “it could be several weeks, or even months, before you are able to schedule.”
Red Bud Regional Hospital: People eligible for vaccination who live or work in Randolph County can join the hospital’s vaccine waitlist online at redbudanytime.com.
Memorial Hospital in Chester: Patients of the hospital’s clinics who are eligible for vaccination can sign up for the vaccine waitlist online at mhchester.com/covidvax.
What if someone doesn’t show up?
Q: What happens when someone has an appointment for a shot but doesn’t show up?
A. In Madison County, Yeager said when someone cancels their appointment the health department works quickly to fill it before the end of the day. In an ideal situation, whoever cancels will give notice ahead of time, but she said that’s not always the case.
“Whenever we have an empty slot from a cancellation, we’ll typically go to the next people on the list,” she said. “We take their [the person who canceled] info so they’re not lost in the cue.”
However, Yeager said the county hasn’t wasted one dose of either COVID-19 vaccine it received from the state. She said vaccine doses are only prepared when the county is certain someone is ready to get a shot.
In St. Clair County, Simmons said the county has only experienced a “significant” amount of no-shows or cancellations on one occasion, but cancellations themselves aren’t rare.
He said typically the county follows a model similar to Madison County’s, where the county searches for another individual on the vaccination list to receive the shot when someone cancels or doesn’t show up to their appointment.
Can ineligible people still register?
Q: Has St. Clair County fixed the problem that allowed ineligible people to register for vaccine appointments?
A. Yes., but no one is saying what specific changes were made.
St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern said Friday, Feb. 12, nearly 80% of the county’s vaccination appointments were taken by individuals from out-of-state or who were ineligible.
Those people were turned away, but Kern said while some vaccinations were still administered that day, valuable time and manpower were wasted due to a breach in the scheduling system caused by the sharing of a web link.
The county has said the scheduling program has been changed to avoid further issues with link sharing, however, officials did not respond to a request from the BND for details.
Is Illinois tracking who gets the vaccine?
Q. Is the state of Illinois tracking detailed demographic information about people who are getting the vaccine, including their race, gender and age. If not, are there plans to do so?
A. Yes, the Illinois Department of Public Health is tracking the age, race and gender of those who have received doses and those who have been fully vaccinated. That data can be viewed through IDPH’s vaccine tracker. As of Friday, the state had vaccinated more than 300,000 people, ages 16 to 64, and just over 74,600 people 65 years or older.
What is taking so long?
Q: Why is it taking so long to vaccinate people?
A. At a recent meeting with lawmakers and health officials, Illinois Department of Public Health’s Deputy Director of Preparedness and Response Andrew Friend said the state receives roughly 280,000 vaccines per week, nowhere near its ability to administer up to 900,000 per week.
“We have a lot of capability, a lot of capacity, but not a lot of vaccine,” Friend said.
Even as Illinois expands eligibility, the state has yet to complete vaccinating people in the first phases. For instance, Illinois has nearly 2 million residents over 65 and only 500,000 had been vaccinated as of Thursday, said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. More than 4 million people are eligible in the current phases, 1A and 1B, and only 1.5 million doses had been administered as of Thursday afternoon.
It could still be months before the state gets to all those in the early phases, Ezike said.
The state focuses on helping local health departments use all the vaccines they have on hand rather than have them sitting around in a freezer, Friend said. Vaccinating as many people as possible will help prevent the spread of new and potentially more dangerous COVID-19 variants.
With help from the Illinois National Guard, mass vaccination and mobile sites have drastically increased the state’s ability to give shots. The National Guard is currently aiding St. Clair County with vaccinations, and Madison County is scheduled to received aid in late February.
What’s being done to improve things?
Q. What’s being done to improve the vaccination effort?
A. President Biden announced two changes to the federal COVID-19 response recently to help states ramp up vaccinations and plan for appointments.
Starting “very soon,” President Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci said recently, there will be a 16% increase in the weekly vaccine allotment sent to the states: from 8.6 million doses to a minimum of 10 million doses. Those doses are distributed based on each state’s population, according to Biden.
Biden’s administration is also guaranteeing a minimum amount of vaccine doses that states will receive over a three-week period.
In a recent press briefing, the Illinois governor said states previously weren’t told how much vaccine they were going to get each week until “a day or two before it was available.”
“So it’s impossible, as you can imagine, to make appointments ahead of time if you don’t know how many vaccine doses are going to be available that week,” Pritzker said.
When is the general public eligible?
Q. When will the general population be allowed to get a shot? Will it be in the summer or fall?
A. It isn’t clear when metro-east counties will begin vaccinating the general public, but officials in several counties say the vaccination of the current eligible 1B group will take at least a few more months. The 1B population includes people 65 years or older, first responders and some educators.
Vaccination of the general public will occur in Phase 2, which comes after the vaccination of the 1B and 1C groups.
Officials in Madison County in early February said it will take a “few months” to vaccinate the estimated 50,000 members of the 1B vaccination group in their county.
County Health Department Director Toni Corona said recently the county hopes to vaccinate 2,500 people a day in the coming weeks, meaning it would take roughly 40 days to vaccinate the entire 1B population.
Randolph County Health Department Administrator Angel Oathout said in early February vaccinating the entire 1B group in her county would take about two months. Oathout said she doesn’t know when 1C vaccinations will begin and said it largely depended on the number of vaccines the county receives as time goes on.
In St. Clair County, officials said there is no current estimation on how long 1B vaccinations would take. However, the county is currently vaccinating roughly 1,310 people a day, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. An estimate on how many people are in the 1B population group wasn’t available.
The state says the next vaccination group will be 1C and will include people 16 to 64 years old with high-risk conditions including obesity, diabetes, heart conditions, pulmonary disease, kidney disease, cancer, pregnancy, sickle cell anemia and other people who are immunocompromised.
The state is planning the next stage as the current stage takes place, meaning 1C vaccinations are being planned now. When 1C begins, further planning for Phase 2 will begin.
The 1C group will also include more essential workers.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, that includes people who work in transportation and logistics, food service, construction, finance, information technology and communications, energy, media, legal, public safety, water and wastewater and public health workers.
In Phase 2, the Illinois Department of Public Health says the state and counties will focus on vaccinating the rest of the general population and anyone who did not get their vaccines during the earlier stages. As more vaccines become available, the state will get closer to Phase 2, according to the state plan.
However, the state has not pinpointed or set a goal for when Phase 2 might begin.
Can we schedule appointments together?
Q. Can I set up an appointment with my significant other?
A. It depends. In Madison and St. Clair counties, when you are contacted to set up your appointment, it’s possible that if you fall into the same vaccination group and signed up at the same time as your significant other that you could schedule your appointments for the same time.
However, St. Clair County Health Department Emergency Response Coordinator Sam Bierman said that in St. Clair County it largely depends on when you and your partner sign up for the vaccine, as the county works in a chronological order.
When is my second COVID shot?
Q. When do I come back for my second shot?
A. The timing of your second shot depends on which shot you received. According to the FDA, if you receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, you will be scheduled to receive your second dose 21 days after your first dose. For the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, a second dose is administered 28 days later.
What vaccine you get varies from day-to-day in counties throughout Illinois and depends on what vaccine is provided by the state health department on that day.
Do I still need a mask?
Q. Once I have both shots, is it safe for me not to wear a mask or social distance?
A. No, you need to continue to wear a mask and to social distance. According to the Center for Disease Control, masks need to be worn for the time being as not enough information is available to determine how likely COVID-19 is to transfer between people after receiving both doses of vaccine.
Officials in St. Clair County have continuously asked for people who have been vaccinated to continue wearing a mask. County Chairman Mark Kern said keeping virus spread down is a key part of the vaccination process.
To protect yourself and others, follow these recommendations from the CDC:
Wear a mask over your nose and mouth
Stay at least 6 feet away from others
Avoid crowds
Avoid poorly ventilated spaces
Wash your hands often
How do I get there?
Q. I can’t drive. How can I get to my appointment?
A. In St. Clair County,the county transit district is offering rides to people who are 65 years or older and have a confirmed vaccination appointment through the health department.
People eligible for the shots will be able to take the MetroBus or MetroLink to the Belleville Transit Center. A St. Clair County Transit District Express Shuttle at the center will take riders to and from the fairgrounds. The service runs Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The free transportation is being funded through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
No similar programs have been announced in other metro-east counties.
What about scams?
Q. How do I spot a vaccine scam?
A. Scammers may try to take advantage of Illinoisans’ eagerness to get vaccinated by asking them for money or personal information in exchange for early access to the vaccine, authorities say.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office encourages you to take these steps to protect yourself from vaccine scams:
Do not buy any kind of COVID-19 vaccine or treatment on the internet or from an online pharmacy.
Hang up on any calls, including robocalls, that direct you to take immediate action or provide personally-identifiable information, such as your Social Security number or bank account number.
The Better Business Bureau’s advice is to “be skeptical of anything that seems too good — or crazy — to be true.”
You can report any scams you see to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office online at ccformsubmission.ilattorneygeneral.net or by calling the consumer fraud hotline at 1-800-243-0607.
How much does it cost?
Q. How much will the vaccination cost me?
A. There is no cost for the vaccine, but providers can charge an administration fee for giving the shot to someone, according to the CDC.
That fee can be reimbursed by private insurance or, for uninsured patients, by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Provider Relief Fund, CDC states on its website.
Which COVID vaccines are available?
Q. What vaccines are available?
A. In December, the FDA authorized two vaccines made by drug companies for emergency use: one from Pfizer and BioNTech and the other from Moderna. It did so because “there are no adequate, approved, available alternatives” and because “the known and potential benefits of the (products) outweigh the known and potential risks,” the federal agency stated in documents for vaccine recipients.
Both of the authorized vaccines require two doses administered three to four weeks apart, depending on the type of vaccine.
Johnson & Johnson recently applied for emergency approval for their one-shot vaccine, according to the Associated Press. The vaccine is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
What are the side effects?
Q. What are some common side effects of the vaccine?
A. The vaccine side effects that trial participants reported most often were fever, headache and generally feeling unwell, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said during a press briefing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says these symptoms are signs the immune system is working.
What are the effects of COVID?
Q. How does that compare to the effects of COVID-19?
A. Some people experience mild illness from COVID-19 or no symptoms at all, but the disease can have potentially serious and life-threatening complications, including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, leading to multi-organ failure and death, according to the FDA.
Can I take painkillers?
Q: Can I take painkillers before or after getting the vaccine?
A. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a recent news briefing it’s best to avoid taking painkillers before or directly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, as it may interfere with the function of the vaccines.
Walensky said certain painkillers that target inflammation, including ibuprofen, may curb the body’s response to the vaccine. That’s because vaccines are attempting to trick the body into mounting a defense against it, “revving” your immune system up, Walensky said.
However, taking painkillers for relief isn’t considered dangerous, and the CDC recommends it for more severe side effects from the vaccine, which can include pain and swelling in the arm and fever, tiredness, chills and headaches.
Is the vaccine working?
Q: Is the vaccine working?
A: “Early indications” show that the available vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are 90% to 95% effective in protecting against COVID-19, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
But the state also notes that “there is no guarantee that you won’t get the virus.” The same is true with any vaccine, the state says.
Experts are continuing to study both COVID-19 and the vaccines to learn more about how long immunity lasts after infection and after vaccination.
“Vaccine developers are looking at ways to boost the effectiveness of a vaccine so that it provides longer immune protection than a natural infection with the coronavirus,” according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Nursing homes were among the first places vaccines were offered and continue to be offered. In recent weeks, the number of new infections in long-term care facilities has been declining. And the industry groups American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living suggest vaccinations may be playing a role.
From Jan. 30 to Feb. 12, long-term care facilities in the metro-east averaged 52 new COVID-19 diagnoses among residents and staff per week, according to state and local health officials. The number of new diagnoses over a week has been as high as 416, which is what officials reported between Nov. 28 and Dec. 4.
Currently, new infections are also declining among people outside of nursing homes, and the long-term care industry groups previously said that the rate of transmission in a community has a direct effect on that community’s nursing homes. However, the groups are hopeful that vaccines are helping infections in nursing homes decrease at a faster rate.
Reporters Kelsey Landis and Lexi Cortes contributed to this article.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow to share your questions with us
Help the BND report on COVID-19 vaccines and their distribution in southwestern Illinois. Send your questions, tips and coverage ideas to newsroom@bnd.com or 618-239-2500.
This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 7:00 AM.