Mobile health unit to vaccinate DeKalb County homebound, hard-to-reach residents still weeks away

Local health officials talk vaccine accessibility, aid to DeKalb County’s harder-to-reach groups

DeKALB – Local health officials say it’ll still be a few weeks before a mobile health unit will make its rounds to vaccinate DeKalb County’s harder-to-reach groups of residents for COVID-19.

Lisa Gonzalez, public health administrator for the DeKalb County Health Department, said the mobile health unit is still in production. She said health department officials reached out to the company creating the unit earlier this week and were told it’s still about four weeks out from completion.

After that, Gonzalez said the next step would be to “wrap” the unit, or put on logos and other branding on the outside of the trailer.

“We are told there should be a pretty quick turnaround for that piece and then it could be used right after that,” Gonzalez said. “So I’m hoping in the next five to six weeks, we’ll have it on the ground and using it.”

Gonzalez previously said the health department doesn’t have the means to offer their own transportation for patients trying to get the vaccine, though TransVAC has been a trusted partner for a long time in picking up and dropping off harder to reach patients within the county. She said there were talks for the mobile health unit for a while and, when the pandemic hit about a year ago, health officials more seriously discussed the mobile health unit idea.

“If the weather is good, we could even do vaccine opportunities outdoors,” Gonzalez said. “We could partner with, perhaps, the schools. We can partner with other businesses. There’s a lot of opportunities, as you can imagine, in our community that would allow for improved access to the vaccine.”

DeKalb County Community Foundation and Kishwaukee United Way officials previously said Gonzalez had been asking throughout the pandemic about status of funding for a mobile health unit with hard to reach areas and people in mind, since the health department doesn’t have satellite offices beyond its home base on Annie Glidden Road in DeKalb. However, state and federal funding the health department could get wasn’t enough to cover the cost of building a medically-equipped trailer with vaccine storage capabilities, officials said.

Both the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine require significantly cold storage capacities. According to the CDC, Moderna vaccine arrives already frozen, between negative 13 and five degrees Fahrenheit. They can be stored up to 30 days in a refrigerator between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit. Pfizer requires even colder temperatures: between negative 112 and negative 76 degrees Fahrenheit and requires a special thermal shipping container.

Vaccines are brought up to room temperature before being administered, though once done, they can’t be put back into cold storage. Therefore, obtaining a temperature-controlled mobile unit was vital to ensuring vaccine mobilization would be possible.

Aside from the eventual mobile health unit, Gonzalez said the health department has used a pop-up tent and partnerships with other agencies to help widen vaccine accessibility. She said health officials are also starting to look at options with other agencies in bringing vaccines to homebound patients, though official timelines have yet to be determined.

“As we sort of transition from the current phase that we’re in, which is the mass vaccination phase using our mass vaccination site, to a model where we would do more convenience-based opportunities in the community, that’s probably at the same time when we’d be offering opportunities to those who are home bound,” Gonzalez said.

Members of the Illinois National Guard check their COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday at the Convocation Center at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

In the meantime...

Mike Neuenkirchen, associate director for Voluntary Action Center, previously said TransVAC has seen between a 40% and 60% decrease year over year in that demand and only about a half dozen – about the same as most public transit systems nationwide. Since February, he said ridership has been increasing month over month.

Neuenkirchen said transports to get people vaccinated has slightly increased to a few trips per week.

“It hasn’t been tons and tons, but we have had some demand that way and we’ve been able to accommodate that,” Neuenkirchen said.

Neuenkirchen said the transit service is still under federal mandates for public transit riders to wear face masks, since the center’s busses are partially funded by federal money. He said the center is looking to eventually implement electronic fare payment – meanwhile, bus drivers still are not collecting cash fares out of health and safety concerns.

“We’re going to keep doing what we have been doing,” Neuenkirchen said.

Marcus Cox, transit manager for the City of DeKalb, said in February that Transdev, which also serves Northern Illinois University, saw a 54% reduction in ridership across all of its services in 2020 compared to 2019. Cox also said the system removed cash exchange for bus fare earlier in the pandemic and the only route charging fare was the Elburn Metra Station shuttle.

“With NIU approaching the end of their Spring semester [on April 30], the fixed route system will begin operating a Break Service Schedule on Saturday, May 1, 2021,” Cox wrote in a Wednesday email. “The Route 18 that travels to and from the DeKalb County Health Department will continue to operate on the same schedule.”

Cox wrote the main difference between regular and break service is access to the NIU Convocation Center.

“Beginning Saturday, May 1, the Route 2L will be the route that provides direct access to and from the Convo Center and that will operate once every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday – Saturday,” Cox wrote. “Sunday service on the Route 2L will provide access to the Convo Center once an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.”

Riders wanting to book door-to-door rides outside of DeKalb, Sycamore and Cortland first must register at www.vacdk.com/about-dialaride/. For registration questions or booking a ride, call 815-758-3932 outside of Sandwich and call 815.787.6219 in the Sandwich area.

More information about door-to-door and fixed route services within DeKalb is available at www.cityofdekalb.com/1283/DeKalb-Public-Transit.

To book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment for yourself at Northern Illinois University’s Convocation Center which is being used as a mass vaccination site, go to www.health.dekalbcounty.org/about/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccination/

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