A new vaccination site at a southern Illinois shooting complex will offer COVID-19 vaccine recipients 100 free target rounds, officials announced Tuesday.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, anyone who receives the COVID vaccine at the Worldwide Shooting and Recreation Complex in Sparta will also receive 100 free targets of trap, skeet or sporting clays.
“If you come and get vaccinated at the World Shooting Recreational Complex vax site – which is already completely free – you’ll get 100 FREE targets of trap, skeet, or sporting clays, to use any time before the end of October,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “These vaccines are incredibly effective and protective for the person who gets them, but just as important, they make the whole community safer."
The Illinois National Guard will oversee operations at the site in coordination with the Randolph County local health department, according to a release. The location will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 14 and 15 for adults age 18 and older.
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Health officials noted that walk-ins are welcome at the Sparta vaccination site.
The mobile site will offer the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine to eligible residents. To make an appointment, click here.
Pritzker also announced that the Amateur Trapshooting Association Grand American World Trapshooting Championships, which officials say is the largest of its kind in the world, will return to the WSRC this summer.
Local
As more major events return to Illinois, the state is on track to enter Phase 5 of its reopening plan - which would mark a full reopening with no capacity limits - in July, officials announced Tuesday.
Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot shared the timeline in a joint statement Tuesday announcing the return of the Chicago Auto Show for the first time in more than a year.
Illinois is currently in Phase 4 of its reopening plan and must first enter what's known as the Bridge Phase before a full reopening in the final Phase 5, which would see all sectors of the economy fully reopened and no capacity limits, among other changes.
As "metrics continue to stabilize and decline, the state could soon move into the 'Bridge Phase' of the Restore Illinois Reopening Plan," Lightfoot and Pritzker's offices said in a joint statement. "Following a 28-day period of continued stability or decline in key COVID-19 metrics, the state would then move into Phase 5, with all capacity limits lifted. The State is on track to be in Phase 5 in July."
