Lake County Fairground COVID-19 Vaccine Site Able To Ramp Up Pace

LAKE COUNTY, IL — Lake County officials say the only thing holding them back from vaccinating more residents is a limited vaccine supply, but that will not be a problem for much longer.

County officials on Wednesday joined Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker to show off the AllVax site at the Lake County Fairgrounds, which began vaccinating Phase 1a health care workers on Jan. 18.

"Much like our statewide vaccination administration plan, this site has been built not to just meet the current limited supply that is necessary, but also to grow as more and more doses come in from the federal government," Pritzker said on Wednesday.

The county fairgrounds site operates three days each week and inoculates some 600 people per day, on average, officials said. The site, however, is ready to expand to vaccinate residents seven days a week and to offer more inoculations each day.

Pritzker said a 16 percent increase in allocated doses of the vaccination is expected in Illinois next week, bringing its total capacity — including doses doled out at health care facilities, pharmacies and vaccination centers — to about 140,000 doses per week.

"A 16 percent increase isn’t enough, but it’s a lot better than we were getting from the previous administration, and it’s an indicator this administration is really listening to the governors," Pritzker said.

Lake County Executive Director Mark Pfister said the county's short-term goal is to increase the vaccination site's capacity to 1,000 doses a day.

"As long as we have the staff, and we have the vaccine, we can operate this facility seven days a week, so next week we're probably going to have 1,000 doses going out of here."

Pfister reminded residents that vaccines for those who qualify are also offered at other locations throughout the county, including at select pharmacies.

"We still want people to understand this is only one location throughout Lake County," Pfister said. "All six of our hospitals have been not only vaccinating health workers, but on Monday they started vaccinating the [age] 65+ population."

The county executive encouraged residents to register to receive a vaccine when their phase opens up.

"We do want our public to be patient, but we want everybody in Lake County to sign in to our AllVax registration site," he said. "They can register along with 300,000 other residents."

The county is currently vaccinating those who qualify for Phase 1a of the shot, which includes health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. It also offers vaccines to adults over age 65.

Once the county moves fully into Phase 1b of the vaccine plan, essential frontline workers will be vaccinated. In Phase 1c, some younger populations with high-risk medical conditions will be vaccinated, along with other essential workers.

RELATED: COVID-19 Vaccination Locator Launched As Illinois Begins Phase 1b

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced he is working to purchase another 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccines and ramping up distribution across all 50 states.

Pritzker said the additional doses should be in play by the end of the summer, a sign of progress in fighting the deadly virus.

"I’m very pleased to share that yesterday on a call with the nation’s governors, the Biden administration announced an increase in weekly allocations to states starting next week," the governor said. "I’m very pleased at these initial developments and will continue to play a national role advocating for amplifying the national vaccine pipeline over the coming months."

Registration can be completed online. Once residents are enrolled, they will receive an email when they are available to be vaccinated. From there, they can schedule an appointment.

The AllVax site is located at the Lake County Fairgrounds at 1060 East Peterson Road in Grayslake.