I’ve already had COVID-19. Do I still need a shot? Answers to your vaccine questions
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has announced all Illinoisans 16 years and older will be able to sign up to be vaccinated in mid-April, preceding the May 1 date for full vaccine eligibility ordered by President Joe Biden.
Can local counties keep up with demand as eligibility expands? What if you haven’t been vaccinated yet but are already eligible? How many people have been vaccinated in the metro-east? If you’ve already had COVID-19, do you still need a shot?
Here are answers to your questions about vaccine eligibility, availability and more.
When will the general public be eligible for vaccination in Illinois?
A: Starting April 12, universal eligibility will begin in Illinois.
That means beginning that day, anyone who is 16 years or older in Illinois will be able to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination appointment.
No new information has been released on how to sign up for an appointment beginning April 12, but the registration process is not expected to change, at least in Madison and St. Clair counties. Watch for announcements at your county health department and in the BND for more details.
Pritzker said the decision to open up vaccination appointments to everyone next month is based on the progress in vaccinating the state’s already eligible groups and a steadily increasing supply of vaccines from the federal government.
“It’s time to begin to cautiously move toward normalcy, and it’s imperative that we do so in a way that maintains all the progress we’ve made to date,” he said. “With projections from the Biden Administration indicating that weekly vaccine deliveries to Illinois will surpass one million doses in April, it is fully in our power to turn the page on this dark and devastating chapter.”
The state began vaccinating people in December. It began Phase 2 in February. Currently, the state is in Phase 1B, part 2 and the following individuals are eligible for vaccination:
People 65-years of age or older
Healthcare workers
People who have one or more of the following conditions: 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
Firefighters
Law enforcement officers
911 dispatchers
Security personnel
Corrections officers and inmates
Food and agriculture workers
Postal service workers
Manufacturing workers
Grocery store workers
Teachers and educational support staff
Shelter employees
Adult day care facilities
State health officials announced Friday more people will become eligible to receive the vaccine before April 12. Higher education staff, government workers and members of the media will become eligible on Monday, March 22. On March 29, restaurant staff, construction trade workers and religious leaders will be eligible.
Originally, President Joe Biden had asked states to make all adults 16 years or older eligible to be vaccinated by May 1. Pritzker hailed the Biden administration for the pace of vaccination roll-outs since inauguration day.
Will my county be able to vaccinate everyone? Can they keep up?
A: Region officials who oversee vaccinations say they will be ready to administer shots to anyone over 16 when it’s time to begin, but they will need a steady stream of supply.
St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency Director Herb Simmons, who oversees the mass vaccination site at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds, said the county “is up for the challenge” of giving shots to everyone. “If the vaccine keeps coming and the demand is there, we’ll that shot into people’s arms,” he said.
The Belle-Clair Fairgrounds has the capability to vaccinate up to 5,000 people a day if supply allows for it, Simmons said. A second lane was recently added to double its capacity.
Currently, Simmons said the site has consistently booked 2,500 vaccination appointments a day. He said that number can increase, thanks to aid from the Illinois National Guard members that are stationed at the fairgrounds and local healthcare workers, but only as vaccination doses increase.
In Madison County, Amy Yeager, the health department’s director of community health and public information officer, said the new eligibility expansion will cause some “shifting” in the department’s strategy. The county’s current system, however, will make for an easy transition to vaccinating the entire population.
In late February, Madison County opened its own mass vaccination site at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville. The county is vaccinating roughly 2,300 people every day at the convention center, Yeager said, and roughly 900 people a day at the county’s Lewis and Clark Community College site, which operates a few days a week.
She said between those two sites, the help from the Illinois National Guard and the increasing availability of COVID-19 vaccines, the county will be able to vaccinate the general population. She noted that vaccinating people is a “gradual” process, people will still need to be patient.
“This isn’t a free-for-all at this point,” she said. “Patience is still going to be key, not everyone is going to be able to get it the first day or even during the first month.”
Q: I’m eligible now, but haven’t been vaccinated yet. What about me?
A: If you’re currently eligible to be vaccinated, Pritzker said the state and local health departments will be making extra efforts to vaccinate you before eligibility expands on April 12.
If you are currently eligible, 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 schedule their vaccination appointments at www.co.st-clair.il.us/Departments/Health-Department/COVID-19-Information/Vaccination-Screen (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. 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.
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.
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.
Anyone in the metro-east who is eligible to receive the vaccine can also 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.
How far along is the area in the vaccination process?
A: The metro-east as a region has fully vaccinated 98,642 people as of Friday afternoon, or roughly 15% of the region’s 660,225 population.
In St. Clair County, as of Friday, more than 41,400 people had been fully vaccinated, or 15.8% of the county’s population.
In Madison County, 36,057 people have been vaccinated, or 13.6% of the county’s population.
Statewide, Pritzker said more than 1 in 4 Illinois adults have been vaccinated and more than 58% of the state’s senior population has been fully vaccinated. As of this week, 100,000 shots of COVID-19 vaccine were being administered a day.
Pritzker said that amounts to roughly 1% of all adults in Illinois getting a shot each day.
I’ve already had COVID-19. Should I still get vaccinated?
A: Experts say yes. Early research shows the vaccine protects against new variants of COVID-19.
Recovering from COVID-19 offers some immunity to reinfection from the original strain lasting at least several months or even longer than that, according to Dr. Clay Dunagan, infectious disease specialist and chief clinical officer for BJC HealthCare.
But researchers have found people with natural immunity still appear to be susceptible to some new variant viruses, he added.
“Natural immunity does not provide a bulletproof vest to future coronaviruses,” Dunagan said.
Your body’s immune response to the vaccine, however, provides much better protection from the variants.
“The levels of antibodies that we produce from the vaccine are so high that they’re adequate to protect against serious disease from the variant viruses,” Dunagan said. “Those people who have been vaccinated appear to have pretty good protection across the board. It’s not a guarantee they won’t get sick, but almost a guarantee that they won’t wind up in the hospital.”
Missouri and Illinois have already identified the presence of virus variants from the United Kingdom, and the South African and Brazilian variants have also been found in Illinois. Nationwide, nearly 5,800 COVID-19 cases from the new variants have emerged.
The strains share the likelihood that they are more transmissible and potentially cause more severe illness, Dunagan said. Early data shows the vaccine protects better against the variants than having had COVID-19, he added.
“The real challenge is if they’re more transmissible, even if you keep your containment measures at the same level, it can still escape if those variants become dominant,” Dunagan said. “We could still get onto a surge that could take us back to the kinds of challenges we were having in November, December.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
