St. Clair County to begin vaccinating anyone 16 or older as IL reports COVID-19 spike
Officials announced Friday vaccinations of anyone 16 years of age and older will begin immediately in St. Clair County, with an appointment, in response to a new rule from the Illinois Department of Public Health that is hoped to curb a worrying rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the state.
“If you’re 16 years of age or older get on the site and get signed up,” said St. Clair County Emergency Management Director Herb Simmons.
To sign up for a vaccine appointment in St. Clair County, visit www.co.st-clair.il.us/departments/health-department/covid-19-information.
On Friday the Illinois Department of Public Health said the state is taking “aggressive action” to address early signs of a possible resurgence of COVID-19, particularly in the northern region of Illinois, allowing counties that have the capacity to further expand vaccine eligibility ahead of schedule.
Since March 8 and through Friday, the state has seen 10 days of increases in the seven-day rolling average for hospital admissions. The state’s COVID-19 test positivity rate has risen from 2.5% on March 10 to 3.3% on Friday.
“We don’t want to go down the same path we’ve seen before and experience a resurgence in the pandemic, which is why Governor Pritzker directed us to use all our resources to halt these upticks,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the state health department. “We cannot move forward if our metrics are going backward. The vaccine will help get us to the end of the pandemic, but we need to continue to reduce spread of the virus by wearing a mask, avoiding large crowds, keeping six feet of distance, getting tested after seeing others, and getting vaccinated as soon as possible.”
Ezike said along with the expanded eligibility, the state would be sending “rapid response” vaccination teams to five counties in the northern region of Illinois to address low demand in the area.
“The number one goal for the state is to get as many people vaccinated, as quickly and safely as possible in order to stay ahead of variants,” Ezike said. “This shift is similar to what we saw when expanding vaccine eligibility from Phase 1B to Phase 1B+ where some parts of the state were ready to move forward, while others were not. Each county is different and local health departments know better how to vaccinate people in their communities as soon as and as equitably as possible.”
St. Clair County Emergency Management Assistant Director Bryan Whitaker said the county has the capacity to begin offering vaccines to anyone 16 years and older due to the mass vaccination site at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville. He added that the site can expand as needed as well, as long as vaccine doses are available.
“As long as vaccination is available we can keep increasing that number (of vaccines administered a day),” Whitaker said.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 4:09 PM.