No First Doses In Skokie This Week Due To Lack Of Vaccine Supply

SKOKIE, IL — Public health officials announced a reduction in the share of first doses of the coronavirus vaccine available through the end of February.

In Skokie, village staff announced Monday there are only enough doses of the vaccine this week to administer second doses to those who already received a first dose at a village clinic.

"First dose clinics will be offered in coming weeks when vaccine supply is sufficient," according to a statement from village staff.

The Skokie Health and Human Services Department's announcement followed a statement Saturday from state public health officials.

"Based on federal projections of vaccine shipments," it said, "the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) anticipates these allocations will hold steady for the next several weeks, before allocations of first doses can once again increase in March."

According to village staff, it may take "weeks or months" before the more than 28,000 Skokie residents pre-registered — online or by calling 847-779-7726 — will be invited to schedule an appointment to receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Of those, more than 20,000 qualify as part of the Phase 1b priority group, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week expanded to include, effective Feb. 25, people with a list of high-risk medical conditions, including diabetes, obesity and heart conditions.

Village officials plan to contact those registered in its database to ask for additional information about their underlying health conditions and ages.

As of Tuesday, a total of 6,199 doses had been administered directly by health department representatives, while another 3,750 doses had been sent to NorthShore University HealthSystem, according to a village spokesperson.

Skokie has been vaccinating "healthcare workers, certain essential workers and Skokie residents age 65 and older." Those "certain essential workers" include village employees and teachers at local school districts. A village spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry regarding whether any essential workers who are not employees of the village or school districts have received vaccines.

According to village staff, hundreds of vaccination appointments were canceled after an unauthorized link to make vaccination appointments was shared on social media.

Skokie residents were encouraged to try to book a vaccination appointment at private providers, including area hospitals and corporate pharmacy chains.

With no statewide vaccine registration system, IDPH has provided a list of hyperlinks to vaccination locations.

In Chicago, city officials announced the Monday holiday and a winter snowstorm had led to delays for vaccine distribution and encouraged those with appointments to call ahead to check availability with their providers.

No data was available to compare Skokie's vaccination progress with that of its neighboring health department in Evanston.

In response to a public records request, Evanston city staff failed to provide any data about vaccine distribution ahead of last month's statutory deadline. Then, more than two weeks after the deadline had passed, Evanston public health director Ike Ogbo declined to disclose the city's distribution from the state, saying only that his department "receives weekly allotments from the State which [vary] from week to week."