Chicago’s top health official said the first coronavirus vaccines marked “the start of what will be the end of COVID-19” in the city on Tuesday, but warned the public that it will still be a long time before the pandemic.
Five health workers were the first people to be vaccinated Tuesday in Chicago at Loretto Hospital, on the west side of the city, at a time when the mayor called it “history.”
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady welcomed the breakthrough in the fight against the pandemic that has now claimed more than 300,000 lives across the country, but noted that she believed it would probably happen a year earlier. that the coronavirus is “in the rearview mirror.”
“There’s nothing I want more for Christmas than a vaccine that looks like this,” Arwady said. He then highlighted the process of evaluating Pfizer’s first U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine, approved for emergency use last week, and noted that it felt “very safe to to know that the steps of the safety process for approving a vaccine have not been omitted “”
Both Arwady and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot praised the vaccine’s arrival in the city the day before, although Lightfoot noted that “the wide community distribution of the vaccine is still months away.”
Arwady said the city expects to receive 23,400 doses of the vaccine this week and expects additional doses to arrive over the next few days and continue in the coming weeks. He also noted that the FDA had planned to review the Moderna vaccine in a few days, saying it expected approval for the second vaccine to be less than a week away.
When it comes to who will get the vaccine first, health officials in Chicago and Illinois have long said they would follow federal public health guidelines to vaccinate health workers first in the fight against the pandemic. The city has said there are approximately 400,000 health workers in the city, including doctors, nurses and other hospital professionals.
“Soon, in the coming weeks, we will expand to long-term care centers for both staff and residents,” Arwady said. “Then, we expect around the end of the year in late December and early January to also begin moving into the space of outpatient health care providers.”
After front-line health workers, residents and long-term care facility staff, the city says priority will be given to workers in essential and critical industries, including emergency services staff. , people at high risk for serious COVID-19 disease due to the underlying medical conditions and people 65 years of age or older.
“But it will be a few months before a vaccine is widely available,” noted Arwady, who added, “You will see that each of these people who were vaccinated did not remove the mask and will not remove it because first, everyone it needs a second dose of vaccine in three weeks, and even then there will be a lot we will continue to learn about the vaccine. “
“We’re going to wear our masks, doing our social distancing for months as we continue to deploy this vaccine. But this is, I totally believe, the beginning of what will be the end of COVID-19 here in Chicago.” Arwady continued.
“We’ve been there for almost a year now and I think we’ll probably be there another year when we get to the point where it’s in the rearview mirror,” he added. “But it’s within our power to keep this virus under control. You know the things that work; please keep doing them.”
Lightfoot expressed a similar sentiment in his statements about the first vaccines.
“Even though we can see light at the end of the tunnel, we’re still in the tunnel,” Lightfoot said. “We still have places in our city where this terrible virus is ravaging the body, mind and spirit of so many.”
“Unfortunately we will be here for the next few months,” Lightfoot continued. “We can’t let our guard down. We have to be diligent and responsible for the things we know protect us. Wearing life-saving masks.”
The first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Illinois on Monday, according to Gov. JB Pritzker, which contained 43,000 doses that are now being processed to go to hospitals across the state.
Chicago was one of five local health departments that received direct shipments independent of the state. The other four are: the Cook County Department of Public Health, the Lake County Department of Health and Health Center, the Madison County Department of Health and the St. Louis County Department of Health. Clair.
Together, the six shipments represent the state’s “planned allocation” of 100,000 doses, Pritzker’s office said. Officials previously estimated that the state would receive 109,000 doses, and Chicago received 23,000 and 86,000 distributed throughout the rest of the state.
The first vaccinations conducted under state jurisdiction, under the control of Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health officials, were conducted Tuesday at 11 a.m. on health workers at OSF St. John’s Medical Center. Francis de Peoria.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two shots three weeks apart.
Earlier this month, health officials in Pritzker and Illinois detailed the state’s vaccination plan and noted that it follows federal guidelines in distributing it to health care professionals and nursing home residents. in accordance with federal public health guidelines.
“The first vaccines will be dedicated to hospitals and health workers in the 50 counties with the highest per capita mortality rates,” Pritzker said Dec. 4 during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Chicago. “Some quick math will tell you that it will take several weeks to distribute even to get our health workers to take the first of the two doses they need, while also reaching the residents of the care facility. long term”.
According to Pritzker, each county has drawn up its own plan for how the vaccine will be distributed, with the governor noting that cities like Chicago and more rural communities will have different strategies to ensure the vaccine is distributed as equitably as possible.
The Illinois public health director said Friday that all 10 state “regional central” hospitals will receive doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for distribution the first week.
Once the doses begin to arrive, the director of the IDPH, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, says the state will make every stop in an “All-In Illinois” effort to make sure the vaccine is administered as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“People will go to their doctors. Mass vaccination tests will be performed. Some in churches, pharmacies, local health departments, “he said.” There will be countless opportunities to get the vaccine. We also want some vaccination efforts. These will continue to increase as it becomes widely available to the public. “