Kendall County Not First In Line To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

KENDALL COUNTY, IL — There is a lot of uncertainty regarding the shipment of the first COVID-19 vaccines to Kendall County. Since the death rate in the county is low and there are no local hospitals, the county will not be first in line to receive the Pfizer vaccine that is being distributed to other parts of the state, Kendall County Health Department Executive Director RaeAnn VanGundy told the county board during its Tuesday meeting.

"We are expected to get a shipment perhaps next week, but we don't know for sure," she said. "We don't know how many [doses]. We don't know a lot of things."

Once the vaccine is available, it will be given to health care workers first and VanGundy said her office is coordinating with the Rush-Copley emergency room in Yorkville, local dentists and first responders.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this week the first Illinoisans will receive the first of their two doses of the vaccine. Illinois will receive about 109,000 doses this week. Nationally, there are almost 24 million people who are classified as Phase 1A — meaning they will be among the first to receive the vaccine — according to the CDC.

At the recommendation of CDC and medical professionals, a portion of the vaccines will be shipped directly from the manufacturers to four of the state's larger public health departments in Cook, Lake, Madison and St. Clair counties later this week. Kendall County did not make it to that list.

"It's a full team effort," VanGundy said. "A lot of unknowns, but we will unravel it as it comes to us."

The KCHD asked people to sign up and volunteer in the mass vaccination program. So far, 142 people have applied. VanGundy said many of the volunteers are nurses and will help relieve the burden of the staff.

"Those volunteers are going to be very critical to our outreach, and we're thankful to the community for the outreach we have received," she said.

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