Lori Lightfoot, left, and Toni Preckwinkle will 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 the COVID-19 vaccine to be eligible for Illinois residents with chronic health conditions and disabilities, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Council, said Thursday morning. a rare statement said.
Government JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday that the state will vaccinate residents with cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, heart condition, sickle cell disease, lung disease and obesity on February 25.
Chicago and Cook County are still vaccinating those eligible in the first two phases of the vaccination effort: health workers, residents at long-term care facilities and those over 65, Lightfoot and Preckwinkle said.
“Our goal is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Lightfoot and Preckwinkle said. That being said, our biggest challenge in doing so is the very limited amount of vaccine we receive.
“At the moment, we are not being given enough doses to enable us to expand fitness,” their statement continued.
Emily Bittner, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Pritzker believes the most medically vulnerable in our state should qualify for vaccination as soon as possible, and that it would be unfair to deny medically vulnerable people like cancer patients in Illinois. ”
If federal officials approve Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in the coming weeks, it will contribute nearly 100 million more doses to the country’s vaccine supply.
“Federal leadership already includes this vulnerable group, and the governor is particularly invested in expanding access because this group contains an excessively large portion of the vulnerable coloreds,” Bittner said.
The governor’s actions will “give local health departments the ability to make plans to open appointments for this group of vulnerable residents,” according to the governors’ office.
If the city and province were to follow the plan outlined by the governor, it would have added a vaccination effort that has scrambled a lot to find an available appointment.
‘If we do it in Chicago and Cook County, there will be more than a million people joining (the current list for vaccinations), and the result would be that those who are currently eligible, including the elderly, essential workers and those in our heaviest COVID load. communities, it will be even harder to get a vaccine, ”said Lightfoot and Preckwinkle.
The Minister of Public Health in Chicago, dr. Allison Arwady, said Wednesday the city is getting just enough vaccine for 5 to 10% of Chicago residents who are already eligible.
Expanding the suitability could make sense in other parts of Illinois, where there is ample supply, Arwady said.
According to the city’s vaccination plan, all essential workers as well as Chicago people 16 years and older with underlying health problems will be eligible to be vaccinated from March 29 if there is enough stock.
More than 900,000 Chicago residents would be eligible in the next phase of the effort, Arwady said. But the city does not have enough vaccine to meet the demand, she added.
Chicago receives about 6,000 doses of the vaccine daily, an increase of about 300 doses, Arwady said.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]