COVID-19 Illinois: Thousands register for vaccine in Lake County

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) -- As the FDA holds a hearing an emergency use authorization for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, about tens of thousands of people have already registered for it in Lake County, Illinois.

The portal is called "AllVax" and it lets Lake County Illinois residents register for the coronavirus vaccine, receive notifications and schedule their appointments, already sparking 50,000 people to sign up.

"We're very, very excited and very optimistic that our public is willing and wanting this covid-19 vaccine to get their lives back," said Mark Pfister, executive director of the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center.

Lake County is the first in the state to launch the website but it likely won't be the last, as counties track and provide information to it's residents.

"This website is so great because people can go in, they can register," Pfister. "They put in their age, whether or not they have any underlying risk factors that may affect which phase they are in and we will be able to tell them directly when they are going to be available for a vaccine."

Lake County expected to receive its first shipment of 6,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine within days once approved. The most at risk health care workers will get them first, then long-term care residents, first-responders, essential workers and people with underlying health conditions.

DuPage County following the same roll-out plan as it expects to receive its first shipment of 13,000 doses.

The general public expected to receive vaccines later in 2021 and the vaccination process will look just like the drive through testing process.

" We are looking at setting up a site and are in the final stages of identifying these sites so that they are geographically distributed across the county," said Karen Ayala, DuPage County Health Department executive director.