National Guard to help run mass-vaccination site at Illinois State Fairgrounds

The Springfield area’s first mass-vaccination site to inoculate against COVID-19 opened Wednesday on the Illinois State Fairgrounds for people 65 and older and others in the state's high-priority groups.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office confirmed to The State Journal-Register late Tuesday that the Illinois National Guard will work with the Sangamon County Department of Public Health to operate the appointment-only site inside the Orr Building on the fairgrounds for the foreseeable future.

Appointments for an initial 600 doses per day began Wednesday morning for people in the state’s 1A and 1B priority categories, which includes people 65 and older and people younger than 65 who serve as “essential workers” in places such as grocery stores and factories.

Vaccine recipients don’t have to live or work in Sangamon County and appointments can be made by calling (217) 210-8801 or going online at scdph.org, according to state officials. The first batch of appointments will be booked through March 3, and vaccine will be administered every day except Mondays, officials said.

As of 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, 4,100 of 7,800 appointments remained available, according to Jeff Wilhite, spokesman for the Sangamon County health department.

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The Springfield site is one of three new mass-vaccination sites opening this week as part of the state’s effort to build capacity as vaccine shipments increase in coming weeks and months amid complaints about jammed phone lines and few available appointments.

The other two mass-vaccination sites are at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and at the Carbondale Civic Center.

“My administration remains committed to administering the COVID-19 vaccine in an efficient and equitable manner, which is why I’m pleased to announce these three new mass-vaccination sites as well as multiple mobile vaccination sites in central and southern Illinois communities,” Pritzker said in a news release.

“These resources will be available to assist local health departments in administering the vaccine, a critical tool in combating this deadly virus,” Pritzker said. “While supply remains limited across the nation, here in Illinois we are building out a robust vaccine infrastructure to ensure we can reach all of our residents as quickly as possible.”

The Springfield site was chosen for its central location to serve Sangamon and other counties where additional access to vaccine is needed, Pritzker aide Jordan Abudayyeh said.

Each of the vaccination sites eventually will be able to administer up to 2,700 doses daily, she said. 

Mobile vaccination teams may be deployed elsewhere in Sangamon County over the next few weeks, according to the release.

Pritzker has activated additional members of the National Guard to operate the sites and to support mobile vaccination sites in the Chicago area and downstate through an interagency effort led by the governor and the Illinois Department of Public Health and coordinated by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the release said.

The three sites in Springfield and Carbondale “build upon the state-supported mass-vaccination infrastructure at Tinley Park Convention Center in Cook County and the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds and Expo Center in St. Clair County, as well as existing mobile vaccination teams already operating around the state,” the release said.

“We are very grateful to the governor for locating this large vaccination center in our community," said Andy Van Meter, Sangamon County Board chairman. "We are delighted to be partnering with the National Guard, who have brought military precision and discipline to this operation.”

IDPH director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said vaccinations are critical to ending the pandemic.

"We must ensure equitable access to vaccine," she said. "We will continue to work to bring vaccine to communities across the state. And as we work to increase access to the vaccine, so shall we continue our educational and outreach efforts to increase acceptance of the vaccine.”

IDPH says that 1.9 million vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, and 446,015 people, or 3.5% of the state's population, have received the recommended two-dose regimen of vaccines approved for distribution.

Public-health experts say the goal is “herd immunity,” in which at least 70% to 80% of the population is fully vaccinated. In Illinois, that would mean about 9 million people receiving vaccine.

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Appointments can be booked online or by calling from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

After Wednesday, shots will be given at the fairgrounds from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

Abudayyeh said the Springfield mass-vaccination site’s shots eventually will expand to 2,700 daily but won’t interfere with the Sangamon County Department of Public Health’s 400 daily COVID-19 shots already scheduled through mid-March at the department headquarters, 2833 South Grand Ave. E., Springfield.

Those appointments only are for people 85 and older, and for people 65 and older who plan to accompany people 85 and older.

Appointments for the mass-vaccination site, however, will be open to the broader 1B category and on Feb. 25 will include Pritzker’s expansion of the category to include people younger than 65 who have chronic health conditions or are disabled.

Sangamon health department officials have said they continue to work with health-care providers to set up vaccination clinics for the general public, beyond the 1A and 1B categories who are their patients.

Details for such future clinics haven’t been worked out because of limited supplies of vaccine, according to representatives of Memorial Health System, HSHS St. John’s Hospital, Springfield Clinic and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

“Springfield Clinic is eager to help vaccinate the public in coordination with our fellow health-care organizations and the department of public health,” clinic spokesman Zach Kerker said. “Our ability to do that is dependent on the supply of vaccinations, which is limited nationally and globally.”

SIU spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said: “Given the global supply shortage, it’s difficult to predict when we will receive the allotments needed to open public clinics. When we do, we will provide a number of ways for eligible members of the community to sign up for the service.”

Contact Dean Olsen: dolsen@gannett.com; (217) 836-1068; twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.