Officials at Advocate Condell Medical Center in the suburb of Libertyville say they will resume coronavirus vaccination of staff members on Sunday after they stopped injections following reactions to four employees who received treatment this week.
The decision to discontinue vaccinations was made on Friday after four people receiving treatment suffered tingling and heart attacks shortly after the injection.
“Out of an abundance of precaution, we are temporarily stopping vaccinations at Condell, which will allow us to better understand what these reactions may be causing,” officials said Friday.
Hospital officials say they have carried out a “thorough internal review”, consulting with infectious diseases and clinical experts, and have decided to resume their vaccination schedule on Sunday.
According to officials, one in four cases appears to be a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine. The individual who suffered the reaction was hospitalized overnight for monitoring, but officials say the person was discharged.
Due to privacy laws, the hospital could not go into details about that person’s medical history.
The other three individuals had more typical reactions to the vaccine and all did well on Saturday, officials say.
“One of the team members who had a mild reaction … was a doctor from our medical staff,” said Dr. Robert Citronberg, executive medical director for infectious disease and prevention at Advocate Aurora Health. “I came to that doctor today who feels great. He is 100% behind the continuous vaccination of our population, knowing how important it is to end the pandemic. He has no hesitation. “
The hospital will make a change in its procedures, extending the so-called “post-vaccine evaluation period” to 30 minutes after the injection, a move they say is stricter than the CDC’s vaccine recommendations.
About 6,000 hospital staff have received the vaccine so far, according to a press release.
Attorney Condell received the vaccines from the Lake County Health Department and said he had no reason to believe the batch was bad because no other hospital reported any problems.
“We are very confident that there are no problems with the integrity of this batch of vaccines,” Citronberg said. “We will still use the vaccine supply in that 120-hour period.”
Following the situation in the suburban hospital, health officials assured the public that the vaccine is safe.
“… The benefit of vaccinations against [the] the population far outweighs the risk, although knowing occasionally that we will have some reactions to the vaccine, ”he said.