McHenry mass vaccination site operation shifts to Curative starting Tuesday

Operations of the McHenry mass vaccination, located in a former Kmart off Route 31, will be overseen by Curative, a private COVID-19 health care provider starting Tuesday, the McHenry County Department of Health said in a news release Monday morning.

The McHenry vaccination site, located at 1900 N. Richmond Road in McHenry, will operate from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

“Now that vaccine demand has shifted, (the McHenry County Department of Health) can step back from the day-to-day operations of the mass vaccination site while assuring access to vaccines is maintained,” department spokeswoman Lindsey Salvatelli said in an email. “This change allows MCDH staff to return to many of their primary responsibilities providing core programming and services to the community. It also affords our team more time to focus on planning and preparing for other COVID-19 needs in the community and readying our response should another surge happen.”

Walk-in vaccinations at the McHenry vaccination site will continue to be an option, but appointments are preferred. Appointments at the McHenry site will no longer appear on the state’s registration system, covidvaccination.dph.illinois.gov, though other county-run clinics will.

Additional pop-up vaccination clinics are held in McHenry County through community-based organizations and pharmacies, according to the release.

A McHenry County health department spokeswoman had previously said it planned to phase out the clinic offered at Willow Creek Community Church in Crystal Lake and the McHenry County health department would be focusing on more mobile locations throughout the county.

Curative got its start in January 2020 with the goal of developing a new sepsis test but when the COVID-19 pandemic picked up in March 2020, its founders decided to focus instead on “creating a rapidly scalable COVID-19 testing process,” according to its website.

Since then, it’s also moved into the vaccination space, locally partnering with Lake County where it worked the McHenry County health department there and Baxter, the multinational health care company headquartered in Deerfield, to run a vaccination site in Round Lake Beach.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Curative to support mass vaccination efforts in McHenry County,” McHenry County Public Health Administrator Melissa Adamson said in the release. “We’ve had huge successes in getting our residents vaccinated, and this opportunity helps us streamline the day-to-day operations of the McHenry clinic now that demand for the vaccine has slowed.”

The cost is to be determined, Salvatelli said. There is no large, upfront costs for using Curative to administer vaccine, instead the health department will pay $40 per vaccine administered if that dose is deemed not billable by Curative, not covered by federal and state government programs, and not covered by private insurance.

As of Monday, 278,879 vaccines had been administered to McHenry County residents with 131,630 residents, or 42.66% of the population, fully vaccinated, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Vaccinations will remain free at the McHenry site, but those with medical insurance will be asked to provide information when scheduling an appointment, according to the release. Those without insurance will not be denied a vaccine.

There are no residency requirements to get a vaccination, but photo identification is required.

The links to register for either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine are available on the McHenry County health department’s COVID-19 Vaccine Locations page.