Bureau County Health Department will begin Phase 1B vaccinations next week, who can be vaccinated?

PRINCETON — In Bureau County, health officials will begin vaccinating individuals next week who fall in line within the Phase 1B category.

This group includes people aged 65 years and older and frontline essential workers.

Who falls in this category? First responders, correction officers/inmates, food and agriculture workers, postal service workers, manufacturing workers, grocery story workers, shelters/adult day cares, public transit workers, those working in education and day cares, including teachers, principals, student support and student aides.

While there’s been a lot of questions about how to get registered to receive the vaccine, Hector Gomez, administrator of the Bureau, Putnam, Marshall County Health Departments, said there will be when the health department is able to receive a higher number of vaccine allocations at a time. Right now, the Bureau County area has been limited on what they receive at one time.

“Once we do have a greater number of vaccines, we’re going to post on how get registered,” he said during Tuesday’s Bureau County Board meeting.

Gomez expects that there will be an online registration option and the health department will have a mechanism to register those who don’t navigate the internet.

During Tuesday’s Bureau County Board meeting, Mary Jane Marini, D-Spring Valley, and Deb Feeney, D-Dalzell, expressed concern about their older constituents who have concerns about traveling to Princeton to be vaccinated at the Bureau County Fairgrounds. They asked if a location could be set up in Spring Valley.

“We need to do more on the other side of the county for our geriatrics,” Feeney said.

Gomez said right now, St. Margaret’s is a place for people to be vaccinated. They are also considering providing a public location to be vaccinated in Spring Valley, however those plans have not been worked out yet due to the limited supply of vaccines. Once the allocations increase, plans can be better determined.

“We got to get vaccines, first. Until then it’s going to be a slow process,” he said.

Gomez later explained that the number of vaccine allocations is based of demographic information.

“Illinois Department of Health and CDC rely on other resources and comparative needs to allocate available vaccines across the state. We don’t know exactly how that formula works on that level,” he said.