Residents of Danville and Vermilion County are continuing to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations despite several complicating factors involved in scheduling the clinics at the state level.
Melissa Rome, the Emergency Planning and Response Coordinator with the Vermilion County Health Department, tells VermilionCountyFirst.com that the health department is receiving doses once a week and then sending it to Carle and OSF, which are also providing vaccine clinics. Carle recently opened a new site at the Village Mall in Danville.
Rome says several people have been frustrated with the slow pace of vaccinations, but she says they can only give out what the state provides them.
“This week we were only allocated 900 (doses), but we asked for what we needed, and so we haven’t received our vaccine yet so we’ll see what we receive,” she said.
The health department is still on the 1B vaccination schedule and is doing mostly frontline workers for now. Rome says most health departments across the state, including Vermilion County, are only focusing on people who live and work here, so people living in Indiana will have to be vaccinated there.
Even if the vaccine allotment would happen to be low on a certain week, people who received their first vaccine shot should not have to worry about getting a second dosage.
“Anytime that we are making appointments we always make sure that our second dosers already have their appointments before we start scheduling any of our first dosers,” Rome explained. “Our dosers who’ve had theirs and they need their second, they become our priority to make sure they get their second dose on time.”
Senior citizens in Vermilion County who are patients of OSF HealthCare are now able to receive vaccines from them, and Carle recently opened up a vaccine clinic site at the Village Mall in Danville and at Carle Hoopeston Medical Center, for any senior citizen. You can check MyCarle or call 217-902-6100 to schedule appointments.
