One of our Local Counties is the Most Vaccinated County in the State!

Things are moving along nicely in one of our west suburban counties!

According to a press release, 44% of residents in DuPage County have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That is the highest percentage of all the 102 Illinois counties!

As of 4/21, 280,503, or 30.2 percent, of DuPage County residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Additionally, 86.5 percent of DuPage County residents ages 65 years and older have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.

In the past week, more than 70,000 vaccine doses were administered into the arms of DuPage County residents for a total of 690,802 doses administered to date.

Not too shabby, DuPage!

The good news doesn’t come with a bit of a warning though, as this portion of the press release indicates:

Despite the increase in vaccinated residents, COVID-19 community transmission levels remain substantial. The highest case activity continues to be observed in youth aged 5-19 years as well as adults in the 20 to 39-year-old and 40 to 59-year-old age groups. Today, local hospitals reported 110 COVID-19 related hospitalizations in daily census reports including 25 patients in the intensive-care unit (ICU). Both hospitalizations and the number of patients reported in ICU care have increased significantly since March 15. Additionally, DCHD is closely monitoring reports of COVID-19 variants in the county. These variants are classified as COVID-19 variants of concern (VOC) as they spread more easily and quickly than other variants and likely cause more severe disease based on hospitalizations and case-fatality rates. Based on national and state-level genomic surveillance efforts to date, 80 cases of B.1.1.7, six cases of P.1, and four cases of B.1.427/B.1.429 variants have been identified in DuPage County. In Illinois, 1,141 cases of B.1.1.7, 328 cases of P.1, and 97 cases of B.1.427/429 variants have been reported as of Apr. 20.

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All DuPage County and Illinois residents ages 16 years and older are encouraged to register for vaccination appointments in DuPage County at www.dupagehealth.org/covid19vaccine, or call (630) 682-7400 if assistance is needed with registration. With some providers receiving vaccine directly from the state or federal government, DCHD encourages eligible residents to contact their primary care doctor, local retail pharmacies, and other vaccine providers in their area for other vaccine appointment opportunities, to get vaccinated at the first opportunity available to them. For a list of COVID-19 vaccination locations, visit www.dupagehealth.org/covid19vaccinelocations.

Additional COVID-19 vaccine information about local efforts, frequently asked questions, vaccination data, and more is available at www.dupagehealth.org/covid19vaccine.