Chicago will begin offering the coronavirus vaccine to residents over 65 next week, launching the next phase of the city’s launch, health officials confirmed on Wednesday.
The Chicago Department of Public Health will allow residents over the age of 65 to start being vaccinated next week, “but only with remaining doses that are not required by health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities,” he said. the department.
“This would launch the next phase of the vaccination effort,” according to the CDPH.
Although not the entire Phase 1B originally planned for the city, it follows a request from the Trump administration, which this week called on states to vaccinate people age 65 and over and under 65 with underlying health conditions. which put them at high risk.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker will announce this week that Illinois will enter Phase 1B of its coronavirus vaccine, although some areas may already be allowed to do so.
“I expect to make a formal announcement later this week, when it will be Illinois
will move to phase 1B at the state level, “Pritzker said during his update for coronavirus Monday.” Of course, anyone in Phase 1A who has chosen not to get vaccinated will always be able to opt in during any subsequent round – it’s about not leaving any vaccine on the shelves as we go along. ”
As of Monday, 587,900 total doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been delivered to Illinois, 478,175 doses have been sent to public and private health care providers outside of Chicago, and 109,725 doses have been sent to Chicago providers.
Illinois, as a whole, has administered approximately 334,939 doses of vaccine since Sunday evening.
“We are making significant progress in Phase 1A and I appreciate the hard work of healthcare providers across the country to move through this phase as quickly as possible,” Pritzker said. “In some communities, they even managed to substantially complete phase 1A. IDPH allows any local health department in this position to move into the early stages of Phase 1B, as we want to ensure that any available vaccine is delivered quickly to the priority groups we have established. ”
Phase 1B will focus on residents over the age of 65 and “essential frontline workers”, including first responders, education workers such as teachers and support staff, childcare workers, grocery store employees, postal service workers. and more.
The age requirement in Illinois is 10 years lower than the initial recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, “to reduce COVID-19 mortality and limit the spread of the community to black and brown communities,” the governor said.
Phase 1B will include approximately 3.2 million people in Illinois, according to the state.
Chicago health officials said they expected Phase 1B to begin in the city in February or March.
“Much depends on how fast the vaccine comes to us,” said Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. “We are getting about 32,000 doses of the first dose of vaccine a week right now. Think about how many people are over 65 – 370,000 – how many essential workers – hundreds of thousands, 150,000, only in education – you will have to be somewhat patient here. But I would expect that we will probably start, you know, between February and March and then continue to get vaccinated, you know, in the next few months. “