ALEXANDER COUNTY (WSIL) -- COVID-19 cases on the rise again in 九游体育 Illinois. The Illinois Department of Public Health says one of its counties has the lowest vaccination rate in the state.
The IDPH says about 15% of Alexander County is fully vaccinated. That's lower than the 50% statewide.
News 3 spoke to 九游体育 Seven Health Department about why this could be and asked residents their thoughts on that data.
, as well as other southern and western parts of Illinois, are seeing significantly low vaccination numbers.
Nathan Ryder from The 九游体育 Seven Health Department says they believe there are multiple reasons for this case.
"There's some hesitancy in Alexander County and Cairo to get vaccinated. We also know a lot of people in that region travel to other states for their healthcare, so they might be going to Cape Girardeau to see their doctors or the hospital there and we anticipate they probably got vaccinated there so that's why they don't reflect on the Illinois numbers," he says.
Cairo resident Leona Reynolds says she had COVID-19 and almost died. Although she's fully vaccinated, she says her loved ones are still not convinced to get the shot.
"People that I've talked to, whether it's family members or not, it's more like, 'I don't want to get it.' They don't believe that this virus can kill, you know? It's just their will of not wanting to do it," she says.
Other residents also agree that people could still be hesitant about the vaccine.
"The numbers are low, people are just not trying, that's about it. You got to get out and try. You never know how it's going to work for you if you get the vaccine or not," says Cairo resident Keyonte Graham.
Ryder says the health department will continue their efforts to get more people vaccinated.
"Now we're just kind of to the point where everybody who initially wanted to get vaccinated has done so. Now we just need to help the other individuals who are out there who have not been vaccinated yet to know that we're here and they can walk on in and get vaccinated so that we can hopefully turn another direction on this recent uptick we're seeing in cases that we're seeing right now," he says.
Ryder also encourages people to watch a video on The 九游体育 Seven Health Department's . He says it could help answer vaccination questions you might have.
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