Kendall County Receives 4,000 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine

KENDALL COUNTY, IL — Kendall County received 4,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine while the county prepares for mass vaccination events this weekend, executive director of the county health department, RaeAnn VanGundy, told county board during its Tuesday meeting.

VanGundy told Patch that they started administering vaccines in Phase 1B, alongside Phase 1A, two weeks ago. About 3.2 million people will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine in Phase 1B, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including Illinois residents 65 and older and front-line essential workers, as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Illinois Department of Public Health.

The department will administer these vaccines —split evenly— to residents over age 65 on Saturday and to educators on Sunday at Yorkville High School. Registration for residents over 65 opened Tuesday, and VanGundy said the health department was working to register seniors over the phone.

"We're very excited about all the growth," VanGundy told county officials. "We get better each day. We get better because of the community support, because of the support from the municipalities, the county, local law enforcement as well as our sheriff’s office."

She said the department is aware of the phone call backlogs and that people "are very frustrated with our phone system right now."

"We are trying," she said. "We're being inundated by phone calls, but those people will get through, and we’ll get their name down and help them get registered."

VanGundy said that the community will have access to more mass vaccination events up to late May as the county receives more vaccines.

As of Wednesday, 1.83 percent of county residents have been fully vaccinated, according to IDPH.

County Board Chairman Scott Gryder said the county aims to do better than the state in terms of the vaccination program.

"We said let’s be the example. There's a lot of waiting around with the state," he said. "Our hope is that now that we have this plan that'll show the state that hey we do have this great plan here in Kendall County. We are committed to getting our residents vaccines, so we can get back to our way of life, where we’re back to normalcy."

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