More than 32,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered so far in Vermilion County, but officials say there is still a long way to go before the pandemic could change.
Vermilion County Health Department Administrator Doug Toole says he is grateful to have had members of the Illinois National Guard helping out at local vaccination clinics in the past few weeks. A little more than 15,000 county residents, or 18 percent of the population are fully vaccinated.
Still, while people continue to be vaccinated, Melissa Rome, the Emergency Planning and Response Coordinator for the health department, says some doses have gone unused on clinic days, and she says more people need to take advantage of the free resource.
“That part has been frustrating for us,” she explains. “We want to do more. We actually have the resources to do more, we just need our people to come.”
Another concern that Rome has is the potential for new variants. Several variants have been spreading in different areas of the state, and it is not known if the current vaccines can completely prevent them from infecting people. She says the variants would make the severe virus even more severe.
“We’re at 126 deaths in Vermilion County,” Rome says of the original COVID virus. “That’s more flu deaths than we see in about five or six years. People like to compare ‘Well, it’s no more than the flu.’ It’s about five or six times than the flu, than we normally see.”
Local residents can receive a COVID-19 vaccine at several different providers. The health department has plenty of openings today and Friday for its outdoor clinic at the Vermilion Regional Airport. You can register at this link or by calling 217-431-2662, extension 263 or 264. Vaccines are also available through Carle, OSF, Aunt Martha’s, CVS, Meijer and Walgreens.
