Jeff Smudde / WGLT / WCBU
Originally published on December 14, 2020 5:47 pm
Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to visit Peoria on Tuesday as OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center employees become the first in Illinois to receive the new COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine will be administered to OSF workers in Peoria at 11 a.m. Tuesday, a spokesperson for the governor said.
The first doses approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arrived in Illinois on 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 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.
SPRINGFIELD The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arrived Monday in Illinois, 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.
“Today marks only the beginning of the national vaccination rollout,” Pritzker said at his daily briefing Monday in Chicago. “This week the very first recipients of the very first phase will receive their first of two doses of this COVID-19 vaccine. To put it in perspective, in total, Illinois will be receiving about 109,000 doses this week. Nationally, there are approximately 24 million people who the (U.S. Centers for Disease Co
A 6½-foot-tall freezer delivered by the state to Springfield’s HSHS St. John’s Hospital in recent days will make history in the fight against COVID-19.
The “ultra-deep freeze” unit, now plugged in along a wall of the internal pharmacy at the 422-bed nonprofit hospital, will be used to store the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine proven 95% effective in a pandemic that has sickened millions and killed more than 290,000 Americans and almost 14,000 in Illinois.
St. John’s is one of 10 regional hospitals that will coordinate distribution of the initial vaccine shipments to local health departments, contractors, and others administering shots to frontline health care workers and nursing home residents as soon as the week of Dec. 13. The Peoria region is being coordinated by OSF HealthCare, who declined the Journal Star s request for access to the site due to security concerns.
Staff Report
Health care workers were among people receiving the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine across the country Monday.
Illinois received approximately 43,000 vaccine doses in a first shipment and expects additional shipments in the coming weeks, according to a press release from the governor s office. The vast majority of doses in the shipment will be delivered to the 10 regional hubs around the state that will serve as pick up locations for local health departments to begin distribution.
“Today marks a momentous occasion – not just this year, but in American history. Eleven months after scientists the world over first got their hands on the genetic sequence of this virus – and we are seeing the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” said Gov. JB Pritzker. “I want to offer my gratitude not only to the researchers who fueled this moment, but also to all the truck drivers, pilots, logistics specialists, warehouse operations managers, and
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