Vaccine

State senators questioned public health officials regarding the state’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts in a Thursday hearing, one day after Gov. JB Pritzker announced that the state would expand vaccine eligibility under Phase 1B by Feb. 25.

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike and Deputy Director Andrew Friend testified before the committee in a more than three-hour hearing, noting the state faces significant challenges in meeting vaccine demand with limited federal supply.

More than 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Illinois since the first vaccine was approved for emergency use this month, more than any other state in the nation, and state officials expect the pace of the vaccination program to speed up as the federal government begins distributing a second drug this week.

As more doses of COVID-19 become available, more people are being added to the groups eligible to receive the shot. 

SIH Chief Medical Officer Doctor Marci Moore Connelley says there are a of moving parts when it comes to the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine.

Coronavirus vaccinations from the state’s National Strategic Stockpile were delivered Thursday to 77 hospitals in 45 counties throughout the state, Gov. JB Pritzker announced at his daily briefing.

Pritzker said the state first’s vaccine shipment totaled 109,000 doses — which includes 23,000 to the city of Chicago and 86,000 for the rest of Illinois.

The state has been advised it will receive roughly half of the shipment of COVID-19 vaccinations that it originally expected from the federal government for the next two weeks, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Wednesday.

Next week’s national shipment was originally slated to include approximately 8 million vaccine doses but is now expected to include only 4.3 million. The following week’s shipment was to include 8.8 million doses but was reduced to 4.3 million as well. Because the vaccine is being distributed on a population basis, each state will have their doses cut proportionally, Pritzker said.

Five health care workers at a hospital in Peoria became the first people in Illinois to receive a COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, marking what Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike called “the beginning of the end” of the pandemic.

The Illinois Vaccine Advisory Work Group has unanimously signed off on Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine that starting arriving in the state on Monday.

Illinois received its first shipment of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.

Governor J-B Pritzker says it's roughly half of the 86-thousand doses to be distributed outside the City of Chicago.

The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arrived in Illinois Monday, but officials said there’s still a need for social distancing, face coverings and other mitigations as a full rollout could take months.

While Gov. JB Pritzker hailed distribution of the vaccine, manufactured by the drug company Pfizer, as the “beginning of the end” of the pandemic, many questions are still unanswerable as to the timeline of distribution for future shipments and that of a second potential vaccine.

As COVID-19 infection rates continued to fall Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker said the first delivery of a vaccine could arrive in Illinois as early as next week, although it could take several months before it is widely available to the general public.

Health experts and others have talked about how life won't get back to normal until there is a vaccine.

During a media briefing Wednesday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he doesn't plan on imposing a vaccine mandate. But, he hopes a high percentage of Illinoisans would want to get vaccinated.