PEORIA While many drugs have special storage requirements, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is particularly challenging.
With a storage temperature of as low as minus 90 degrees Celsius, or minus 158 degrees Fahrenheit, the vaccine is forcing major purchases ultra-cold freezers that typically cost between $10,000 and $15,000.
Both hospital systems in central Illinois acquired the ultra-cold freezers months ago in an effort to be prepared when the vaccine began arriving.
Area health departments have also made plans for vaccine storage. Peoria County will rely on the freezer at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, while Tazewell County has purchased a 3 cubic foot unit. Woodford County is also working to get a unit, with hopes that it will arrive in January, said spokeswoman Andrea Ingwersen.
PEORIA Local state s attorneys say they can t comment on hypothetical cases involving COVID-19 enforcement but agree they will apply the law as it fits.
Both Peoria County State s Attorney Jodi Hoos and her Tazewell County counterpart, Stewart Umholtz, say they take things on a case-by-case basis, and that they will act appropriately. Umholtz, whose office has received no complaints at all, said he will not comment on hypotheticals.
Umholtz works in a county where the top lawman, Sheriff Jeff Lower, has repeatedly said he will not enforce the governor s executive orders as he doesn t feel they are rooted in law. But Umholtz said that s not a factor to him.