COVID 19 Vaccination Update Provided to Cook County Board

Cook County Board - Health and Hospitals Committee Meeting
April 13, 2021

Cook County Health (CCH) has been working hard to get people vaccinated.  The following improvements to the system were cited

1. 5 mass vaccination centers opened including the new site in Matteson which is the largest and is in an abandoned Target store.
2. 13 PODS (point of distribution) sites opened to target school personnel.
3. Worked with 145 organizations for other sites
4. Changes made to improve the vaccination website including adding a waiting room. 1.4 million people have scheduled through the site.
5. Expanding hours for the telephone hotline for scheduling appointments for non computer users. Hours are M-F 7am-10p and Sunday 8am-10p. Average of  30,000 to 50,000 calls per day. When new shipments arrive calls can exceed 100,000 per day
6. CCH is committed to equity and has identified 32 communities needing attention and will be doing temporary priority PODS 
7. Current limiting factor is still supply but the sites are capable of a ⅓ surge if supplies increase.
8. Paramedics will be making visits to vaccinate homebound people 
9. Organizations can request pop up sites
10. There will be drive through sites opening now that the weather is improving.
11. Research indicates that the most hesitant to be vaccinated are 18-34 year olds. A My Shot campaign has trusted voices for this demographic recommending shots.

In addition to vaccinations, the CCH Contact Tracing initiative now has 187 tracers and 63 investigators. 90% of newly identified Covid patients are contacted and 71% responded. Funds are available to help quarantining patients with food, home supplies and lost income.

The number of new cases is rising but they can still keep up for now.
The BinaxNow rapid antigen test is in use.

The meeting had been delayed while CCH CEO Israel Rocha, and Drs Joshi and Rubin from the Cook County Department of Public Health, and Mr Barnes were handling the problems caused by the temporary hold on Johnson & Johnson vaccines.  All patients who were to receive the J&J vaccine will be offered either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.  Anyone with a scheduled appointment can still be vaccinated. Only 27,000 J&J vaccines have been given in suburban Cook County and no issues with blood clots have been reported.

Several commissioners spoke - some had questions but most were just complimentary comments.

Observed by: Lisa Slankard                                           Length of Meeting - 1 hour