DuPage County: Over 80% of vaccine inventory on hand allocated for second doses

DUPAGE COUNTY – Over 80% of all vaccine inventory on hand is allocated for second doses that will be administered in the coming days, the DuPage County Health Department reported Wednesday.

The limited remaining first dose inventory will be administered to new individuals during upcoming vaccine clinics, and will be exhausted within one week, health officials said.

Current Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) vaccine inventory reports show DuPage County Health Department has 3,120 vaccine doses and community partners have 42,894 vaccine doses on hand as of Feb 23.

However, the reported vaccine inventory does not separate first and second doses accurately which health officials said can be misleading. Each vaccine provider receives a matching number of second doses to ensure people are fully vaccinated with two doses, but these arrive at variable times before they are needed.

“While we strongly support the Governor’s Office and IDPH efforts to get doses out as quickly as possible, the reported vaccine inventory on hand does not accurately represent doses available that can be used to vaccinate more people,” health officials said in the news release.

DuPage County this week received just 4,510 first vaccine doses, according to health officials. From this allocation, 2,540 doses were distributed to pharmacies, 400 doses were distributed to medical practices, 400 doses were distributed to Federally Qualified Health Centers, and 1,170 are supplying the DCHD Community Vaccination Clinic.

“Although the demand for vaccine far exceeds supply at this point, we urge residents not to be discouraged. The vaccine supply is expected to increase over the coming weeks and months as additional doses become available and more vaccines are hopefully approved for use,” said Karen Ayala, Executive Director of DuPage County Health Department. “We continue to expand our vaccine distribution infrastructure with over 110 approved vaccination partners. The only constraint is the limited vaccine supply but when the supply is ample, we will have the ability to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible.”

DuPage County has administered 164,331 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, over one in seven DuPage County residents. A total of 47,391 people, or 5.10% of the population, have been fully vaccinated.

The health department and vaccine providers in DuPage County remain focused on vaccinating the 270,000 people in DuPage County previously eligible in Phase 1b and assuring that all healthcare workers who meet Phase 1a criteria have also had the opportunity to be vaccinated.