The DuPage County Complex will be transformed from a COVID-19 testing site into a vaccine site for the virus.
More About The Site
Testing at the Wheaton location will end this Friday, and next month some community members may start getting vaccinated at the site.
It will become one of more than 80 vaccination sites around the county.
“54,655 DuPage County residents have received at least one vaccine,” said DuPage County Health Department Executive Director Karen Ayala. “And 15,012 people have been fully vaccinated.”
There are roughly 928,589 residents in the county, 1.62% of which have been fully vaccinated.
DCHD Vaccine Plan
On Monday the county transitioned into Phase 1b of their COVID-19 vaccine plan. Phase 1b includes residents over the age of 65 and frontline essential workers like first responders, educators and education support staff, and grocery store employees.
DCHD estimates it will take about 12 weeks to vaccinate the roughly 268,000 people who qualify for Phase 1b before transitioning to Phase 1c.
Those looking to get vaccinated by the county must sign up through the DCHD registration portal.
“People may get their vaccine through hospitals, pharmacies, outpatients clinics, employer base clinics, or from the health department,” Ayala said.
High Demand Low Supply
Ayala noted DCHD’s plans are subject to change mainly due to how many vaccines doses the county receives. Supply has been low and inconsistent according to a presentation shown at the latest DuPage County Board meeting.
For example, in week five (1/10-1/16) the county received close to 24,000 vaccine doses, but in week 3 (12/27-1/2) the county received around 5,300 doses.
Ayala said once those numbers increase the county has the infrastructure to administer more vaccines.
For the latest information on COVID-19 in DuPage County you can visit DCHD’s website.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
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