How will I be notified about my second COVID-19 vaccine? Your questions answered
As vaccines become more available to residents in St. Clair County, with the county recently moving into part 2 of Phase 1B of vaccine rollout, there are still questions about scheduling an appointment to get the vaccine and filling out the county’s vaccine interest form. As of Friday, nearly 11% of residents in the county are fully vaccinated.
Every Sunday, St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency answers questions from viewers during its daily COVID-19 briefing. The briefing, which mainly shares county data for COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, is streamed live on the agency’s Facebook page every day at 3:30 p.m.
Most of the questions were directed to Sam Bierman, St. Clair County Health Department’s emergency response coordinator.
Here are her answers to some of the questions asked during Sunday’s livestream:
Q: I received my first COVID-19 vaccine of Pfizer on Feb. 28, and I’m due to get my second shot on March 21. Is there a number I can call if I don’t receive the email to schedule my shot?
A: Don’t be too concerned just yet. When you are due for your second vaccine, approximately 2 to 3 days before that date, you will receive an email on how to sign up for your second dose, so don’t be too concerned yet, because you still have a few days until we get to that point, but if we get to that point and you aren’t contacted, we do have two numbers you can call that goes into our call center, and that is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Those two numbers are 825-4447 and 509-6010.
Q: Do you know which days this week are Pfizer and which days are Johnson & Johnson?
A: Today, we have Johnson & Johnson. Monday and Tuesday, are both Pfizer. We are closed on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday are Pfizer as well.
Q: Can anyone fill out the vaccine interest form or is it only for the groups that are currently eligible?
A: We would encourage everyone to sign up for the vaccine notification form. That way, we have your information and when we move to the tier that you fall into, we are able to pull that information and that’s how we get you the information on how to sign up when it is your time.
Q: Have any of the variants been identified in the area?
A: We have had no indication and no positive test results for that variant in St. Clair County at this time
Q: I was in the hospital with an infection. How long should I wait before getting my first vaccine?
A: We recommend you checking with your primary care physician to make sure that they decide that the vaccine is right for you and once you get the go-ahead from them, if you haven’t done so, please fill out the vaccine notification form, so we have the information to contact you when it is your time.
Q: What process is being used by St. Clair County to reach seniors?
A: We have reached out to many of our seniors in St. Clair County. We’ve done that several ways. We have reached out to senior centers all across the county as well as PSOP (Programs and Services for Older Persons), so we’ve reached out to those individuals in the community as well as any senior housing that we have to figure out where those individuals are, how many they have, and we’ve started doing mobile clinics to some of those locations. As far as long-term care facilities, there was a federal partnership program with Walgreen’s and CVS that they actually came into the facility to vaccinate the residents and staff.
Q: Is there a difference between the Pfizer 2 appointment and the one listed as Pfizer Clinic?
A: No, that’s just the way we had to do it within our scheduling system.
Q: IDPH posted St. Clair County Health Department having 30,007 doses in inventory on March 11. St. Clair County inventory went down to 19,080 doses on March 12. Does that mean St. Clair County Health Department gave over 10,000 vaccines in one day? Is that data correct?
A: The information on that portion of the website is only updated once a week, so it’s possible that we could have depleted that and also received some shipments of vaccine all within that week, making the numbers to look like something that they aren’t. I can tell you as of now, we have partially vaccinated 89,408 residents of St. Clair County and fully vaccinated 33,247, which is a little over 12%. We’re not there yet, but we’re continuing to work hard. The St. Clair County Health Department of course has the mass vaccination site at the fairgrounds. We also have the 330 W. Main location and both of our hospitals in St. Clair County--Memorial and St. Elizabeth’s-- are also giving doses of the vaccine. East Side Health District and Touchette Regional Hospital are also giving out vaccines.
