Lori Lightfoot, left, and Toni Preckwinkle appear on “Chicago Tonight” on May 14, 2018 and October 16, 2017, respectively. (WTTW News)
Chicago and Cook County do not have enough doses of COVID-19 vaccine to expand eligibility for Illinois residents with chronic health conditions and those with disabilities, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Committee Chairman Toni Preckwinkle said Thursday morning. a rare joint statement.
Governor JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday that the state will begin vaccinating residents with cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, heart disease, cell disease, lung disease and obesity.
Chicago and Cook County continue to vaccinate those eligible in the first two phases of the vaccination effort: health care workers, long-term caregivers, and those over 65, Lightfoot and Preckwinkle said.
“Our goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible and as effectively as possible,” said Lightfoot and Preckwinkle. “That being said, our biggest challenge in this regard is the very limited supply of vaccine we receive.
“At the moment we are not being given enough doses to allow us to extend our eligibility,” they said.
Emily Bittner, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Pritzker “strongly believes that the most medically vulnerable in our state should qualify for vaccination as soon as possible and that it would be unfair as vulnerable people in our country.” medically, like cancer patients, to be denied the vaccine in Illinois. ”
If federal officials approve the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the coming weeks, that would add nearly 100 million extra doses to the nation’s vaccine supply.
“Federal guidelines already include this vulnerable group, and the governor is specifically investing in expanding access, as this group includes a disproportionately high share of people of color vulnerable,” Bittner said.
The governor’s action will allow local health departments “the ability to make plans to open appointments for this group of vulnerable residents,” according to the governor’s office.
If the city and county were to follow the plan set by the governor, it would add additional stress to a vaccination effort that left many fighters to find an available meeting.
“If we do this in Chicago and Cook County, we would add over a million more people (the current vaccination eligibility list), and the result would be that those currently eligible, including the elderly, the essential workers in the first line and those in the strongest COVID communities, would have an even harder time getting a vaccine, ”said Lightfoot and Preckwinkle.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Wednesday that the city receives enough vaccine for only 5% to 10% of Chicagoans who are already eligible.
Expanding eligibility may make sense in other parts of Illinois, where there is enough supply, Arwady said.
Under the city’s vaccine launch plan, all essential workers, as well as Chicago citizens 16 and older with underlying health problems, will be eligible for vaccination beginning March 29, if there is enough supply. .
More than 900,000 Chicagoans would be eligible in the next phase of the effort, Arwady said. But the city has “almost no place” for enough vaccine to meet that demand, she added.
Chicago receives about 6,000 doses of vaccine each day, an increase of about 300 doses, Arwady said.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]