The DuPage County Health Department (DCHD) announced thatas of Feb. 10, the DCHD COVID-19 Community Vaccination Clinic will relocate to the DuPage County Fairgrounds located at 2015 Manchester Road in Wheaton to expand its vaccination capacity as vaccine supply allows. Vaccinations are available by appointment only to individuals signed up on the DCHD registration form.

"I've been proud to work closely with the Health Department as we have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and worked to reduce its impact on our residents," said DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin. "Right now, I'm also proud to say DuPage County is leading the collar counties in getting vaccines into people's arms with over 100,000 doses administered to residents and 2.88% of its population now protected with two doses."

In DuPage County, DCHD developed its community vaccination plans using a decentralized approach. To achieve this, vaccination plans were built upon the existing public and private partnerships within the County. This provides the ability to utilize the existing infrastructure to vaccinate as many eligible individuals, as quickly as possible.

"The community vaccination plans developed are both flexible and scalable based on vaccine supply using a decentralized community vaccination model. Recognizing the large-scale effort necessary to vaccinate county residents, DuPage County Health Department realized early on it would require a strong network of partners which we are fortunate to have," commented Sam Tornatore, DuPage County Board of Health President.

Currently, DCHD has partnered with close to 100 healthcare providers to ensure widespread access to vaccine once more supply is available. However, only 42 partners are currently receiving vaccine allotments due to the limited supply.

In addition to the thousands of vaccines administered through vaccine clinics at hospitals, outpatient providers, and pharmacies each week, the DCHD COVID-19 vaccine clinic has also vaccinated between 1,500 – 2,000 people per week and just last week administered their 10,000th vaccine. Through this expansion, if vaccine supply allows, the community clinic could vaccinate up to 5,000 people per week.

The new site provides a convenient, central location in the county for residents to access and a safe indoor space to protect the staff, volunteers, and residents receiving the vaccine from the winter elements. The DCHD COVID-19 Community Vaccination Clinic will continue to operate Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. by appointment only.

"We are very fortunate to have a robust network of healthcare providers in DuPage County who are committed to administering vaccine as soon as it is available," shared Karen Ayala, Executive Director of DuPage County Health Department. "When doses arrive, they do not sit in freezers for extended periods of time. Appointments are opened, links to schedule an appointment are sent, and doses are administered into the arms of those in the eligible groups."

Individuals who would like to register for vaccine through DCHD, should visit http://www.dupagehealth.org/covid19vaccine. Anyone who does not have access to the internet, a computer, or who needs support with registering for vaccine, including language assistance, should call the Health Department at (630) 682-7400 and a representative will assist them.

As residents wait for vaccine to be available to them, the Health Department urges everyone to do their part in preventing the spread of COVID-19 by wearing face masks, physical distancing, avoiding in-person gatherings, washing their hands, and isolating or quarantining when necessary. Everyone, including those who have been vaccinated, should continue using these measures to help end this pandemic as we learn more about how COVID-19 vaccines work in real-world conditions.