More than 4,000 tested at DeKalb County's mobile COVID-19 sites gives insight on mass vaccine distribution

DeKALB – DeKalb County health officials are getting a better idea of what mobile COVID-19 testing sites worked best within the county and what that could mean for mass vaccine distribution down the road.

Lisa Gonzalez, executive director for the DeKalb County Health Department, said during a recent remote county health board meeting that the health department has been able to set up multiple testing sites over the past few months, despite more competition statewide for securing those sites hosted by Illinois Department of Public Health. As spread of the viral respiratory disease soared across the state, DeKalb County has seen more than 4,000 people tested at those sites. Gonzalez said the locations have been deliberately spread out throughout DeKalb County.

“We did have a really successful one … at NIU, but really all of them have been really successful,” Gonzalez said. “There’s still a high demand for testing, especially for free testing, in the community.”

According to health department data, there were 423 tests administered Sept. 19 and Sept. 20 at the health department’s campus in DeKalb and 522 tests given from Oct. 3 through Oct. 12 at DeKalb High School. There were 817 total tests given Oct. 27 through Oct. 29 at Genoa-Kingston High School, 467 total tests Nov. 14 and Nov. 15 at Hiawatha High School and 1,496 total tests Nov. 16 through Nov. 18 at the Northern Illinois University Anderson Hall parking lot in DeKalb right before Thanksgiving.

Melissa Edwards, spokeswoman for the DeKalb County Health Department, wrote in a Nov. 24 email that there were 228 people who were tested on Nov. 23 at the Sandwich Fairgrounds and 159 tested on Nov. 24 at the same location, with a total of 387 people tested at the site over those two days.

Edwards also wrote in a Tuesday email that 248 people were tested on Tuesday through the latest COVID-19 mobile testing site at Kishwaukee YMCA in Sycamore.

Cindy Graves, a registered nurse and director of community health and prevention with the health department, said there is a test reporting lag of about five days following a mobile testing event. Though more testing opportunities create more cases for the county, she said, that amount of testing and making it more available is what is helping the county keep its positivity rate down.

“If we did not offer this much testing … there’s a lot more negatives that are being thrown into that pool then also,” Graves said. “This is part of the measures that we are really working on to be able to keep our positivity rates down.”

Graves said health officials have been watching how operations flow for each of these test sites very closely. She said she was very encouraged by how well testing flowed for the NIU location, let alone for the rest of the sites, especially.

“Because when it comes time for a vaccine or any other kind of push, whether it be pills or vaccine, and if we want to do a drive-thru method – which makes a lot of sense – we’re, again, trying that on,” Graves said.

Gonzalez said the county has had a mass distribution plan in place for a vaccine, but the plan has had to be tweaked quite a bit based on the current situation. However, she said, the plan the health department is working on now for distributing the eventual COVID-19 vaccine builds on existing policies and procedures.

Gonzalez said that local health officials have been told to plan for some vaccines trickling in starting in December, with health care workers, first responders and those who are at highest health risk being targeted for receiving the vaccine first. She agreed with Graves that the mobile testing sites were chosen for a reason.

Graves reaffirmed that, for as long as she has been in emergency preparedness, the pills or vaccine distribution plan has always been the plan.

“What we’re seeing is that they’re doing quite a bit of a shift in the plan that … we have been supposedly planning for this all along and the shifts are being made,” Graves said.

One example of that plan shifting, Graves said, means that pharmacies now will handle vaccine distributions for long-term care facilities as opposed to local health departments.

“It’s a little bit of a moving target right now,” Graves said.

Gonzalez said a popular question health officials get is whether the COVID-19 vaccine will be mandatory for people to receive. She said she hasn’t heard anything about the vaccine being required for any specific group at this time.

“But there’s a lot of people asking that question,” Gonzalez said. “They want to know, ‘Will I be required to get it as a health care worker?’ or ‘Will it be required for my child to go into school?’ We’re on a lot of calls all the time lately, especially related to mass vaccination, but we believe that it’s probably going to evolve very quickly and we’re fortunate to have at least a baseline of plans in place.”