Mayor Shares Frustration With COVID-19 Vaccination Process

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Highland Park city officials provided an update on efforts to vaccinate residents against the coronavirus at Monday's City Council meeting.

Frustrations with the vaccination process expressed by residents are shared by city and county officials, Mayor Nancy Rotering and City Manager Ghida Neukirch reported.

"Please know that we share your anticipation and frustration with the COVID vaccination process, as demand continues to outpace supply," Rotering told the public.

"This is a story of numbers and demand and I look forward to hearing manager Neukirch's report, because we're all getting very frustrated and running out of patience," she said. "The patience that you've shown has been greatly appreciated, but in the meantime, you know the drill: mask up, back up, wash your hands, stay home, try to do everything you can to not increase the spread of COVID — it is still very, very present in our area."

Neukirch said public vaccine providers were getting a somewhat more limited supply of doses than private entities. She encouraged residents to pursue any means possible to secure a vaccine, whether from the local health department or elsewhere.

"So I can't stress enough the importance that, if people are interested in the vaccine, please, please register through the Lake County registration portal," Neukirch said.

More than 340,000 people have signed up with the county through its AllVax Portal. Once registered, people will receive weekly updates from the Lake County Health Department confirming their registration.

As of Tuesday, more than 76,000 people had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

But Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister has estimated there are more than 100,000 people in Lake County who qualify for the Phase 1b priority group due to their age, the city manager explained.

"So even though they just started with [Phase] 1b residents January 25th, that 'over 100,000' is just for people over age of 65. It doesn't include those essential workers that are included as part of the CDC 1b phase, so please be patient with them," Neukirch said.

"We, of course, are working very closely with Lake County. We are also pursuing private means as well — looking at private partners to set up PODs in our community or in southeast Lake County in our area," the city manager said. "So when I say, 'We vaccinate,' we don't vaccinate, but we are just helping to coordinate the vaccination process to all of our residents, and to everyone that is in that Phase 1b."

According to Pfister, at least 200,000 out of the county's 700,000 residents are eligible as members of the Phase 1b group.

The health department aims to vaccine 80 percent of the population, which will require 1.2 million doses of currently authorized vaccines. But as of Tuesday, the county had received fewer than 71,000 doses — enough for just 5 percent of residents.

"Lake County shares our frustration that they're just not getting the vaccine in the quantities that they really need to best serve the public," Neukirch said. "So we are doing everything that we can just to help get that information out and just to make sure that everyone who needs this vaccine gets vaccinated as soon as possible. But again, that demand far exceeds the supply."