Will Co. Lacking In Resources For Scaling Up COVID-19 Vaccination

WILL COUNTY, IL — The Will County Health Department needs financial help to be able to execute its COVID-19 vaccination plan efficiently. With that in mind, Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant requested $5 million from the Will County Board committee that is in charge of distributing more than $100 million the county received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act last year.

During its Jan. 28 meeting, the committee talked about this request. Bertino-Tarrant said the money will help WCHD with the "huge undertaking" of getting residents vaccinated. The department needs money to set up a call center to notify residents who have registered, when it’s their time to get vaccinated.

Her sentiments were echoed by Sue Olenek, the executive director of the health department, during a virtual session with the Will County Board Wednesday, who said the department's COVID-19 hotline for answering questions about the disease and testing has been crashing due to the volume of calls. Moreover, she said she does not have enough staff, and it has been overwhelming for them while residents are getting frustrated with the delay in the vaccine rollout.

"I think (residents are) expecting an immediate call back," Bertino-Tarrant said. "But we're talking about thousands of calls a day."

Mitch Schaben, Bertino-Tarrant’s chief of staff, told committee members that the health department only received about $1.7 million from the federal government. He said the department does not have enough resources right now "to even scale this thing up to where it needs to be."

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