National Guard to help run a new McHenry County vaccination site

The Illinois National Guard is set to be deployed to McHenry County to run a new mass vaccination site with additional doses provided by the state beyond the county's normal allocation, County Board Chairman Mike Buehler said Thursday.

The McHenry County Department of Health visited a potential site for this new vaccine clinic with members of the National Guard on Thursday, Public Health Administrator Melissa Adamson said in a meeting of county board members ahead of the visit.

"We appreciate and welcome the governor's and [the Illinois Department of Public Health's] assistance in getting McHenry County more vaccine to our population that wants it and look forward to working with the National Guard," Buehler said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

The health department and members of the state's Emergency Management Agency toured multiple sites Wednesday and Thursday to identify the ideal location for the county's next mass vaccination clinic, Buehler said. The new site would join two others run by the county: the old Kmart building in McHenry and the Harvard Moose Family Center in Harvard.

Potential site locations include the McHenry County Fairgrounds in Woodstock, an old T.J. Maxx building in Crystal Lake and the vacant Joseph's Marketplace in Crystal Lake, among others, Buehler said.

The county is hopeful that members of the Illinois National Guard will be deployed to the county in as soon as two to three weeks, he said. They will stay for a period of six to eight weeks to aid in the vaccination of county residents, with a focus on local seniors.

Kane and Lake counties have also been in talks with the Illinois National Guard to set up similar mass vaccination clinics, Buehler said.