Evanston COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Decline As Phase 1b Begins: Mayor

EVANSTON, IL — City officials described a lack of a communication and coordination from state agencies as Evanston moves into the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination distribution plan.

Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty and Health and Human Services Director Ike Ogbo addressed questions from residents Friday, as the city's health department began its first vaccination clinic for residents aged 85 and over as part of Phase 1b. Another such point of distribution, or POD, took place Monday at the Levy Center.

Hagerty said city staff are unaware how many doses of vaccine they will receive from week to week, and the Illinois Department of Public Health is similarly unaware of how many doses it can expect from the federal government.

"The state, like us here in Evanston, wants to get needles into arms as quickly as possible," Hagerty said. "And so while initially out of the gate it was that the state was going to distribute to certified public health departments, whether that's the county departments or city departments, they're now saying 'OK, well, can we use the pharmacies?' 'Can we use the hospitals?' … and have them providing the vaccines, I think all of us would say, 'Yeah, that makes sense.'

"What's lacking right now is really tight sort of coordination and communication on all of this," he said. "Which I know is causing some frustration for our residents when they say, 'Hey I heard my friend got theirs from CVS, why haven't I gotten mine yet?'"

Ogbo said the state had begun distributing vaccines to local pharmacies, but city officials had few details and were still seeking information about it. He said he was unsure which local pharmacies would be involved.

"What we are asking for is a much more coordinated effort," Ogbo said. "Because we are hearing rumors, we're hearing news in the community about people getting vaccinated here and there, and we think that a coordinated effort will definitely do us a world of good."

RELATED: COVID-19 Vaccination Locator Launched As Illinois Begins Phase 1b

Since the start of the year, the city has received three shipments totaling 2,400 doses, according to city staff. During that period, the staff vaccinated more than 1,200 non-hospital health care workers. But the most recent shipment shrank from 1,400 to 900 doses, according to Ogbo and Hagerty. It was not immediately clear how many doses city officials had requested.

Hagerty said he was surprised to see the decline in doses distributed to the city but hopeful that it would improve in the coming weeks.

"Although, if the state and IDPH does change the methods of distribution of the vaccine, then it's possible that we could see reduction in the city," the mayor said. "And we could see thousands going to our NorthShore University HealthSystem, to AMITA St. Francis, to Erie [Health Center] and to other pharmacies and so forth and pushing residents there to get their vaccinations."

Ogbo said there are only a few days between the time city staff can confirm vaccine doses are available and the scheduling of PODs for local residents and workers. So far, PODs have been held at the Levy Center but there are plans to establish a site at Evanston Township High School in the future.

"We do get notification from the state of how many vaccines we'll be getting, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those vaccines are in our hands," the health director said. "So our events are typically scheduled three days or four days after receiving these vaccines, so it doesn't really leave us with much time."

The city has launched a vaccine pre-registration survey and asked everyone who lives or works in Evanston to sign up individually, including those 16 and under for whom a vaccine has yet to be approved. The health director said Friday about 40,000 people had completed the vaccination form.

RELATED: Evanston Begins Vaccinating Non-Hospital Health Care Workers

City staff have divided up the over-65 priority group in Phase 1b into three subgroups, Ogbo said. There are more than 8,000 seniors in Evanston who qualify, including 1,200 who live in long-term care facilities not included in the federal contract for CVS and Walgreens to conduct on-site vaccinations of nursing homes.

"The way we segmented it is to first of all vaccinate those who are 85 and above because them being more fragile and once we are done with that we'll move down the line, 74 to 84, after we're done with those individuals then we move down to 65 to 74," he said. "So we're hoping that the strategy that we put in place will be able to provide a system whereby we vaccinate individuals based on the quantity of vaccines that we are receiving."

As for the number of essential workers who live or work in Evanston, Ogbo described it as "vast." He said city staff were working out how to prioritize different groups of front-line workers, with plans to start first with "first responders and critical workers" before moving on to other groups, such as teachers and school support staff.

Depending on vaccine supply, Ogbo said, the city may be able to start vaccinating some teachers by the end of the first week of February.

"We're also thinking along the lines of: if vaccines are limited to perhaps prioritize those teachers who are going to school, having in-class sessions with students, because of the exposure factor," he said. "It's something we're still deciding, we're still taking a look at the data to see everyone who qualifies for that group then after that we'll make a decision on that."

President Joe Biden has set a goal of administering 100 million vaccines in 100 days. On the first three days since his inauguration, 4.3 million doses were administered, and the seven-day rolling average for his first week in office exceeded 1.1 million.

Public health officials estimate about 500 million doses must be administered nationwide to 250 million people in order to approach herd immunity and return society to a degree of normality. For that to happen by the end of summer, vaccine administration would have to more than double. If the nation averaged 2 million doses administered a day, it would reach that point Sept. 22. If it averaged 3 million doses administered a day it would approach the critical vaccination point around July 4.

Watch: Full Jan. 22 Coronavirus Q&A from Evanston city government »