St. Clair County’s vaccination site will be model for future efforts, IL official says
Illinois Department of Emergency Management Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau said St. Clair County’s mass vaccination site at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville is regarded so highly by the state that it’s being used to help model future vaccination sites.
Tate-Nadeau said Tuesday the state believes the county is using “best practices” at the mass vaccination site and lauded the site’s drive-thru vaccination method.
“Very frankly, it’s evident that St. Clair approaches this from a whole of government approach and it is really benefiting the people of St. Clair County,” Tate-Nadeau said. “It’s really a privilege to see government working at its best to serve the people.”
She added that as more mass vaccination sites are opened statewide, counties will learn from St. Clair County’s development of the mass vaccination site and its effort to keep a “zero waste policy” on vaccine doses.
As of Tuesday, St. Clair County had vaccinated fully vaccinated 37,439 people or roughly 14.34% of the county’s 261,059 population. The county has fully vaccinated the most individuals and administered the most vaccine doses in metro east, just slightly outperforming Madison County.
Tate-Nadeau said mass vaccination sites are an important part of the vaccination process as the country quickly moves to protect the population against COVID-19 as new variants appear.
“As new variants come out we’re really trying to hit that herd immunity as quickly as possible,” she said. “The state is doing extremely well in that compared to other states of our size.”
Currently, more than 1.5 million Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
She noted that, according to President Joe Biden’s administration, by the end of April, the state and the rest of the country are expected to see a large increase in vaccine availability.
Biden said last week the entire adult population of the U.S. will be eligible to be vaccinated by May.
Tate-Nadeau said more mass vaccination sites will be needed across the state to meet the demand, meaning many new vaccination sites may be using ideas like the drive-thru vaccination line in St. Clair County in the near future.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 4:16 PM.