‘We’ve got it covered’: DeKalb County health officials announce mobile health unit on the way amid COVID-19 vaccine rollout

DeKALB – Nearly a year in to the COVID-19 pandemic throughout DeKalb County, health and local fundraising officials say a mobile health unit to aid vaccine distribution for harder-to-reach areas of the county is coming soon.

Dan Templin, executive director for DeKalb County Community Foundation, said the foundation has awarded COVID-19 related grants through its relief fund throughout the year, with those funds going toward personal protective equipment and logistical planning for vaccine distribution.

“Even when we didn’t know when [the vaccine] would be coming,” Templin said.

Templin said Lisa Gonzalez, public health administrator for the DeKalb County Health Department, had been asking for months 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.

The problem was state and federal funding weren’t enough to cover the cost of building a medically-equipped trailer with vaccine storage capabilities, he 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.

Templin said the foundation felt it was a good, tangible way to bring vital health services – especially during the pandemic – to more rural parts of the county. So recently, the foundation helped pay for the $90,000 specially outfitted unit – which will not only have storage capabilities, but it also will be temperature controlled and have the technology for data connectivity.

“So it’s not just like buying a trailer that’s an empty trailer with cedar walls,” Templin said.

Templin said he anticipates the mobile health unit being used regularly for vaccines, but could be used longer term as well. Over time, he said, thousands could benefit from it.

“We didn’t even see it as just a one time investment that’s going to just be used for six months and then it sits in a parking lot,” Templin said.

Gretchen Sprinkle, executive director for Kishwaukee United Way, said the organization’s mission is to improve quality of life for county residents, with a focus on education, income and health.

“So when this opportunity was presented to collaborate with other funders in the community to help the health department to vaccinate people so we can be safer during pandemic … it really was a no brainer that we would contribute to this in whatever way we could,” Sprinkle said.

Sprinkle said DeKalb County is just rural as it is urban, so they thought it was important to help gather funds to help provide care for people who don’t have easy access for vaccines and beyond – including those who live in the more southern parts of the county. She said it took less than a week to come up with enough funds to make the purchase.

“That is a huge benefit and I can’t see anything but good things for the community through that,” Sprinkle said.

Templin said the unit has been ordered already but orders for that kind of thing have been backed up – which is to be expected with vaccine rollout. He said he anticipates the mobile health unit to be delivered at the end of April or beginning of May.

“So we’ve got the money raised,” Templin said. “We’ve got it covered.”

Gonzalez 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 talks for the mobile health unit have gone on for a while and, when the pandemic hit about a year ago, health officials more seriously discussed the mobile health unit idea.

“Eventually we would like to have drive-thru vaccine clinics when the weather improves some,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said the health department has been very fortunate to have the foundation partner with them, whether it’s for PPE or vaccines for the community.

“They where there when there was nothing else available,” Gonzalez said. “And, once again, they’ve really stepped up and partnered with us in a big way to provide this mobile health unit.”

In the meantime...

Mike Neuenkirchen, associate director for Voluntary Action Center, said there has been less than half a dozen riders that have used the service since the agency started tracking that data a few weeks ago, when the COVID-19 vaccines started to become more available within DeKalb County.

“It certainly hasn’t been a huge amount of people or anything like that,” Neuenkirchen said, adding that it’s still early in the vaccination process and, “what’s more important is that we’re available, should anyone need us.”

Like most transit systems nationwide, Neuenkirchen said, TransVAC has seen between a 40% and 60% decrease year over year in that demand. He said there even has been less Kishwaukee College shuttle ridership than before and it has become more of a dial-a-ride program, since a lot of classes moved online.

“It’s a whole new world,” Neuenkirchen said.

Riders wanting to book door-to-door rides outside of DeKalb, Sycamore and Cortland first must register at 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.

Marcus Cox, transit manager for the City of DeKalb, said Transdev, which also serves Northern Illinois University, also saw a decrease in ridership for both fixed routes and door-to-door bus service, especially after NIU removed in-person classes.

“Overall, in 2020, we saw a 54% reduction in ridership across all of our services compared to 2019,” Cox said.

That’s less of an impact than most urban transit systems, which have been seeing up to 80% in decreased ridership, Cox said. Despite the reduction in ridership, he said, the agency still tries to maintain route frequency to help keep social distancing issues at a minimum and so students who are still living in residence halls and student apartments still have access to the service.

Cox said the Route 18 bus goes to the DeKalb County Health Department building in DeKalb at least every hour between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and the Route 2L or 2R busses go to the NIU Convocation Center about every ten minutes. He said it also became commonplace earlier in the pandemic to remove the exchange of cash for bus fare and the only route charging fare now is the Elburn Metra Station shuttle.

“Everything else is free,” Cox said. “You don’t have to show any ID.”

Neuenkirchen said the agency continues to schedule rides with an eye toward social distancing, limiting transportation to a couple of riders at a time per vehicle. Per a more recent federal order, he said, masks continue to be required for all drivers and passengers.

“Until there’s a change in that, we will be following that for the foreseeable future,” Neuenkirchen said.

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

Cox said city transit officials also are following the federal order and are still looking at when safest time to reinstate cash fares will be – but it will definitely be when the vaccine is more readily available than it is currently. He said electronic bus fare is still a ways away for the system to implement, but riders will get a heads up once fares are required to board again.

“There would be at least a 3-4 week lead time so people have some time to be prepared,” Cox said. “It’s kind of a fluid situation and we want to make sure we feel comfortable but also that riders feel comfort and safe with it, too.”