“We’re so close to being out of this,” commented Randolph County Health Department Administrator Angela Oathout at the April 1 Randolph County Board of Commissioners meeting.
She noted that the health department is continuing to vaccinate residents for COVID-19 and health department staff have been holding clinics at some of the manufacturing facilities in the county.
According to Oathout, the health department has been getting a steady supply of the Moderna vaccine, but she hopes that soon they will be getting a steady supply of the Johnson & Johnson one dose vaccine.
She also reported that as of last week, the county will provide vaccine for any residents age 18 or older. Only the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for those age 16 or 17, and the county does not have the cold storage capabilities for that vaccine.
However, if anyone wants to get the Pfizer vaccine, it is available at one of the state’s mass vaccination clinics. The closest mass vaccination clinics are at the St. Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville or in Carbondale at the Southern Illinois University Banterra Center/Arena or the Carbondale Civic Center.
The Randolph County Health Department will hold a Moderna vaccine clinic on April 15.
For more from the Board of Commissioners meeting, please see this week’s print edition.