Evanston Now A health care worker at St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria this morning became the first person in Illinois to get the COVID-19 vaccine. (Still frame from State of Illinois video) Some health care workers in Illinois received their first COVID-19 vaccine shots today — but that hasn’t happened yet in Evanston and other Chicago suburbs. Workers at St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria and at Loretto Hospital in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood did get shots today. Carolyn Starks, public relations manager, for NorthShore University HealthSystem, says the hospital group’s “receipt of the vaccine is delayed.” Starks says NorthShore is working with five different public health departments to coordinate getting the vaccine.