Over 12,000 Lake County Residents Receive Coronavirus Vaccine

WAUKEGAN, IL — More than 4,600 people in Lake County have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of Wednesday, just over a month after federal authorities approved the first vaccine. That represents about two-third of 1 percent of the county’s total population.

About 7,628 other Lake County residents had received just the first dose of the vaccine, for a total of over 16,880 total doses administered in the county as of Wednesday morning, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The rate of getting vaccines into peoples' arms has accelerated in suburban Cook County, the state’s data shows. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered stood at 1,152 people a day Tuesday, up from 402 a week prior.

Lake County trailed only Chicago (73,987), suburban Cook County (70,201), DuPage (33,950) and Will (19,584) counties in the number of doses administered to its residents.

More than 33,000 people in Cook County (including Chicago) are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but no one had received both doses of the vaccine in Clark County, in East Central Illinois, by Wednesday, public health data shows.

RELATED: Phase 1B Of Illinois' COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan Revealed

More than 384,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine were administered statewide as of Wednesday.

About 49,000 doses were given to residents and staff at Illinois long-term-care facilities through a federal program run by CVS and Walgreens, which reports data to the state every two weeks.

Almost all of those who received the vaccine are health care workers or residents of long-term-care facilities, who were prioritized under the first phase of the vaccine rollout.

RELATED: Next Phase Of Illinois Coronavirus Vaccine Rollout Imminent

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday he expects to announce a timeline for Phase 1B later this week. About 3.2 million people will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine in Phase 1B, including Illinois residents 65 and older and front-line essential workers, as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the IDPH.

Residents who were eligible to receive a vaccine during Phase 1a but did not can "opt in" for a vaccine at any point, Pritzker said.

The state public health department has not released ZIP code level vaccine data, although the Chicago Department of Public Health has done so.

RELATED: Over 175,000 Lake County Residents Are Registered For COVID-19 Vaccine

In Lake County, about 25 percent of the population has pre-registered to receive the vaccine through the county's AllVax portal. They included more than 11,000 health care workers and about 16,000 other essential workers.

“As we continue to move through these phases of vaccination, being registered in AllVax is critical,” Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister said. “We want to let you know when it is time to get vaccinated, but we can only do so if you are registered. If you have already registered, remind your loved ones, family, and friends in Lake County to do so as well.”