Mass vaccination site coming to old Toys “R” Us location in Joliet starting April 1

Joliet will get another mass vaccination site set to open next month, this time with the help of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The new site will be at the old Toys “R” Us location, at 3128 Voyager Lane near the Louis Joliet Mall, according to a Will County Health Department Facebook post.

Residents can make an appointment through an online scheduling system. A link to make an appointment for a vaccination is on the Will County Health Department Facebook page.

The post said the vaccination site will operate starting April 1 through May 30.

Also, the department said the it will begin vaccinating those eligible under Phase 1b+ of the state’s vaccination plan, which includes people age 16 through 64 with certain medical conditions. Though Gov. JB Pritzker has already announced that anyone above the age of 16 will be eligible for a vaccine starting April 12.

County officials said this site will be run by the Will County Health Department, but its efforts will be supplemented by the Illinois National Guard. Sue Olenek, the executive director of the Will County Health Department has said in recent weeks, her team has been in talks with the IDPH about setting up such a site.

One especially attractive aspect of having a vaccination site with the help of the IDPH and National Guard, was that the state would bring its own vaccine supply to supplement the county health department’s doses.

Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, D-Shorewood, said county officials spoke Friday with the IDPH about operating a new mass vaccination site. She added that once there was an agreement on a location, plans moved quickly.

“Once they got the ball rolling, it went boom, boom, boom,” Bertino-Tarrant said. “(The IDPH was) pushing for it to be open as quick as possible.”

Mitch Schaben, Bertino-Tarrant’s chief of staff, also said the old Toys “R” Us location was an ideal spot to state officials because of the public transportation options for residents to travel there.

He added that the county also hopes to utilize volunteers from the Joliet Fire Department, which has helped operate another clinic at Joliet West High School, to further make vaccinations at the Toys “R” Us site run efficiently.

County officials had also said in recent weeks that they’ve spoken with the IDPH about opening a mass vaccination site with state help in the northern part of the county. Multiple officials had mentioned Joliet Junior College’s north campus in Romeoville as a potential clinic location.

Schaben said the county still hopes to open such a site to be more accessible for northern Will County residents.

The county health department opened a clinic in Wilmington this past week and plans on opening another in Monee in the coming days to better geographically spread out its efforts.

For more information, visit willcountyhealth.org.