First COVID vaccines delivered
Pritzker oversees arrival, declares ‘beginning of the end of this pandemic’
Gov. Pritzker takes a cellphone shot of the first COVID-19 vaccines as they’re unpacked at the state’s Strategic National Stockpile on Monday. (Illinois Governor’s Office)
By Ted Cox
The governor oversaw delivery of the first 43,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to Illinois on Monday, declaring “the beginning of the end of this pandemic.”
Gov. Pritzker was on hand as the first 43,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were delivered to the Illinois Strategic National Stockpile. He saw the first boxes of vials of the vaccine removed from packages filled with dry ice and then stored in ultra-cold refrigerators, as required for the Pfizer vaccine.
The vaccines are being passed on to Regional Hospital Coordination Centers around the state, which “will serve as pickup locations for local health departments to begin distribution to health-care workers in their jurisdictions,” according to a news release from the Governor’s Office.
Chicago was to receive a separate delivery on its own. “Four additional local health departments around the state will also receive direct shipments from the federal government later this week,” according to the news release: Cook County Department of Public Health, Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center, Madison County Health Department, and St. Clair County Health Department. The release added that “these direct shipments account for the state’s initial expected allocation of 100,000 doses.”
Dressed in an Illinois Emergency Management Agency jacket and accompanied by IEMA Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau, Pritzker shot cellphone photos of the first boxes of vaccine vials as they were unpacked.
“Today marks a momentous occasion — not just this year, but in American history,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Eleven months after scientists the world over first got their hands on the genetic sequence of this virus — and we are seeing the beginning of the end of this pandemic.”
Pritzker made a point of expressing thanks “not only to the researchers who fueled this moment, but also to all the truck drivers, pilots, logistics specialists, warehouse operations managers, and law-enforcement officers who have spent the last few days and weeks deploying the largest national mission in a generation. May we all take a moment to feel hope today.”
Later, during the daily coronavirus briefing at the Thompson Center in Chicago, Pritzker called it “a very special day that should instill us all with optimism and hope.” The first two phases of vaccine distribution will follow plans laid out earlier this month, with both the state and Chicago planning their first vaccinations for Tuesday. Pritzker warned, “Our destination is clear, but the road ahead will be long,” extending into most of next year before all are inoculated.
Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike cautioned Illinoisans to continue to observe the three W’s — wear a mask, wash hands, watch social distancing — as she announced Monday that hospitalizations for COVID-19 fell below 5,000 statewide for the first time in six weeks, with 4,951 under treatment, 1,070 in intensive care and 621 on ventilators. Some 7,214 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus took the state total to 856,118, while 103 new deaths attributed to COVID-19 brought the statewide toll to 14,394 on a day the U.S. toll climbed past 300,000. The seven-day testing positivity rate dropped to 8.7 percent.
Ezike said she was cheered that a suspected rise in cases after Thanksgiving had yet to materialize, although she said it was still too early to say for certain that the holiday hadn’t caused a new spike. “Today is a great in our fight against COVID-19. It is the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” Ezike said. “But we are not there yet. There are still many months ahead before we eventually end this pandemic. But we will get there together as soon as we can by all working together.”