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More COVID-19 vaccine allotment leads to expansion of appointments in Springfield

The State Journal-Register - 3/2/2021

Mar. 2—Additional COVID-19 vaccination appointments have been created at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield over the next few weeks after Sangamon County public health officials received more vaccine.

Beginning Wednesday, the mass vaccination site in the Orr Building on the fairgrounds will increase its daily appointments from 600 to as many as 1,100, Jeff Wilhite, spokesman for the Sangamon County Department of Public Health, said Tuesday.

The new hours for appointments will be 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday — an expansion of the previous hours, which had been 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. since the site opened Feb. 17.

The additional vaccine also will allow appointments, while they last, to be booked through March 21; appointments at the fairgrounds previously had been booked through March 10, Wilhite said.

As of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, about 3,300 first-dose appointments had been booked out of the 10,000 additional first-dose appointments made available by Monday's shipment of vaccine, he said.

The mass-vaccination site is operated by the county health department in cooperation with the Illinois National Guard and Illinois Department of Public Health.

The expansion in appointments was announced the same day as a report of four additional deaths of Sangamon County residents with COVID-19. The deaths, which occurred between Feb. 22 and 26, bring total COVID-19-related fatalities of Sangamon County residents to 222.

The recent deaths included a man in his 80s who tested positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 19, a man in his 80s who tested positive Feb. 23, a woman in her 60s who tested positive Feb. 1 and a woman in her 90s, a resident of Auburn Rehabilitation & Health Care Center, who tested positive Feb. 6.

The COVID-19 vaccination site at the fairgrounds will continue to operate by appointment only, and for now, it will serve only people in the state's 1A, 1B and 1B-plus categories. Those categories include health care workers, staff and residents of long-term care facilities, "essential workers" such as those in grocery stores and factories, anyone 65 and older, and anyone 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities.

There are two options to register for the shots: scdph.org or by calling (217) 210-8801. To better serve those without internet access, 20% of appointments will be available only to those who call the hotline.

People do not need to live in Sangamon County to schedule an appointment.

Through the county health department's online appointment system, people with disabilities are covered under the tab, "Persons aged 16 to 64 years with high-risk medical conditions."

Population groups in 1A, 1B and expanded 1B groups are outlined by the state health department online: dph.illinois.gov/covid19/vaccine-faq.

The mass-vaccination site is distributing Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Wilhite said.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, with each dose given several weeks apart, for full effectiveness.

The newly approved one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is expected to arrive in Illinois on Wednesday, with an initial 22,000 doses for Chicago and 83,000 doses for the rest of the state, according to IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.

It's unclear when Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses will reach Sangamon County, though IDPH said in a news release more than 90% of the 83,000 doses for areas outside Chicago will be sent to mass-vaccination sites "throughout the state."

Like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has proven 100% effective in clinical trials to protect recipients against death and hospitalization, according to IDPH.

The use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the mass-vaccination sites is "maximizing their capacity and getting as many eligible Illinoisans vaccinated as possible so that we can win the race against the new virus variants and end this pandemic," IDPH director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in the release.

Gail O'Neill, director of the Sangamon County health department, said there is a chance that the department could receive as many as 3,000 Johnson & Johnson doses this week and another shipment a few weeks after that.

Health insurance companies will be charged a $23 administrative fee for each vaccination, but vaccine recipients, regardless of their insurance status, won't face any out-of-pocket charges, Wilhite said.

Additional information about COVID-19 vaccine availability in Sangamon County can be found at bit.ly/SangamonVaccine.

The state health department reported 1,577 new cases of COVID-19 and 47 additional deaths statewide on Tuesday. There have been a total of 20,583 deaths and 1.19 million cases in Illinois, with the statewide test-positivity rate at 2.8%

As of Monday, 1,231 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Illinois, with 281 in intensive-care units and 148 on ventilators.

A total of 2.8 million vaccine doses had been administered in Illinois as of Monday night, with 6.8% of the population, or 866,132 people, fully vaccinated, according to IDPH.

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

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