People under the age of 65 who have medical conditions that put them at high risk of severe COVID-19 cases will be eligible for vaccination from 25 February.
Eligible include people with cancer, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other lung diseases, diabetes, heart problems, weakened immunity after a solid organ transplant, obesity, pregnancy and sickle cell disease, according to a statement from press of the governor’s cabinet.
Gov. JB Pritzker said his decision to include newly eligible residents follows the guidelines of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Advocates for people with medical conditions praised the change to save lives, but others criticized it because many people 65 and older are still desperate to get few vaccination slots after weeks of trying them.
Pritzker said “increasing” the supply of vaccines in Illinois will soon help more people get vaccine appointments in Phase 1B of the state, which is for everyone 65 and essential workers, as well as the new group added .
“As soon as we get enough supplies of vaccines, we shouldn’t waste time protecting them,” Pritzker said Wednesday during a tour of a large-scale vaccination site in Adams County.
State health officials announced Wednesday that another 62,923 doses of the vaccine had turned it into the arms of Illinois residents and workers. This brings the total number of vaccinations to 1,480,079 since the launch began in mid-December.
This includes 327,413 fully vaccinated Illinois residents, approximately 2.6% of the state’s population, according to records from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Both the Pfizer and the Modern vaccine require two doses of weekly difference.
Pritzker said that while vaccine shipments were arriving more slowly than he would have liked, federal officials promised this week 5% more doses than were initially to be received in Illinois. Another 18,200 doses were shipped Tuesday to Illinois.
Pritzker noted that the administration of President Joe Biden has enacted the Defense Production Act to increase the supply of already approved vaccines. A Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine is expected to soon receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which may increase the supply of vaccines to states.
“Illinois is moving forward in line with CDC guidelines to expand our eligible population as supply allows, approaching the point where the vaccine is widely available to anyone who wants it,” Pritzker said.
Illinois Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie, a Republican from Hawthorn Woods, had urged Pritzker to include the most medically vulnerable.
“I am pleased to know that those most sick and at risk of death from COVID-19, regardless of age, will have access to the vaccine,” McConchie said. “While the state should have provided some method from the beginning to those doctors who have insisted that the life or health of their patients depends on vaccination, there is now light at the end of a very long tunnel for those in need. “
Pritzker noted that Illinois has administered the fifth largest number of vaccines in any state. It is the sixth most populous place.
“We’re hitting above our weight class, so to speak,” he said. “But we have a long way to go, no doubt.”
COVID-19 has killed 53 other Illinois residents and infected 2,825 more people in the state, health officials said in a one-day report.
Since the outbreak began, 19,739 Illinois residents have died and 1,724,325 have been infected.
The state’s positivity rate stands at 3.3%, based on a seven-day average, and is at its lowest point since late July, according to IDPH records . Case positivity rates allow healthcare workers to track the level of infection.
Illinois hospitals also reported that 2,082 patients are being treated for the virus. Of those hospitalized, 232 are in intensive care units.
Many who end up hospitalized have underlying conditions that put them at risk.