Illinois Valley Times

The Grundy County Health Department is downshifting its COVID mitigation operations. 

According to a May 17 Facebook post, the department has shut down its first COVID vaccination clinic, effective immediately. 

"The [First Christian Church of Morris] was the first home of our COVID vaccination clinic," the department wrote in the post. "[...] This is where we administered our first COVID vaccine, and where we came together as a community to vaccinate Grundy County."

The clinic spent a little over two months at the church before moving to its current location in Shabbona Middle School.

"While tearing down our first vaccination site was a sad, yet bittersweet moment, we look at this as a huge step in the right direction in our fight to end COVID-19," the post read. "We will forever have fond memories of our time at First Christian Church and we can't thank them enough for all their  generosity."

Gov. Pritzker visited the FCC clinic back in March, where he thanked the public health staff for keeping the people of Grundy County safe, drawing appreciation from state Rep. David Allen Welter (R-Morris), a lawmaker oftentimes critical of the governor. 

“I don’t often agree with the Governor on policy and politics,” Welter said, according to the Grundy Reporter, “However, I’m grateful his administration has provided Grundy County with additional vaccines and the National Guard to help give them.” 

Grundy County recently accepted updated public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people. Vaccinated residents are no longer recommended to wear masks or socially distance unless where a law or private business requires it. 

A press release to the Grundy Reporter outlined these recommendations:

The CDC’s guiding principles for these updates are:

-Indoor and outdoor activities pose minimal risk to fully vaccinated people.

-Fully vaccinated people have a reduced risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to unvaccinated people.

-Fully vaccinated people should still get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

-Fully vaccinated people should not visit private or public settings if they have tested positive for COVID-19 in the prior 10 days or are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

The following recommendations for fully vaccinated persons are as follows, per CDC/IDPH:

-Resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance

-Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel (For now, masking is still required on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation.)

-Refrain  from  testing  before  leaving  the  United  States  for  international  travel  (unless  required  by  the destination) and refrain from self-quarantine after arriving back in the United States

-Refrain  from  testing  following  a  known  exposure,  if  asymptomatic,  with  some  exceptions  for  specific settings (e.g., employees or residents of homeless shelters and detention facilities)

-Refrain from quarantine following a known exposure if asymptomatic

– Refrain from routine screening testing if feasible

For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:

-Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms

-Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations