COVID-19 vaccines are slated to arrive in the west suburbs for healthcare workers this week, potentially as soon as Wednesday, as one of the largest vaccine campaigns in U.S. history gets underway.
The first Illinois COVID-19 vaccines were administered at a Chicago hospital and a Peoria hospital Tuesday, and health departments and hospitals in Kane and DuPage counties anticipate receiving their first shipments of vaccines from the state in the coming days. The first allotment of the Pfizer vaccine, which was approved for emergency use last week and arrived in Illinois Monday, is to go to health care workers.
“I didn’t think they would be able to do it as quickly as they did,” Scott Yilk, an emergency room doctor at Naperville’s Edward Hospital said, “but we didn’t have the time to wait. I’m very happy to be among those getting the first shot.”
In Kane County, health department spokeswoman Susan Stack said the department expected to receive the vaccine as soon as Wednesday. It would be immediately deployed once received, she said.
One of the Kane County hospitals slated to receive vaccines from the health department, Aurora’s Rush Copley, said Tuesday it was still determining the timing of when the doses will arrive.
In DuPage County, the health department said it expected to receive the vaccine later this week, and it declined to provide additional information about delivery dates or times “to ensure safe delivery and receipt of the vaccine.”
In DuPage, Naperville’s Edward Hospital was notified it would receive vaccines Thursday, spokesman Keith Hartenberger said.
Edward and the Kane County Health Department had said Monday they anticipated receiving vaccines Tuesday. On Tuesday, Edward said receipt from the state had been delayed.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at his daily COVID-19 press conference Tuesday shipment wasn’t delayed, but rather no delivery was scheduled that day from the state to suburban hospitals.
“There will be distributions over the course of the week,” he said. “Tomorrow there will be, no doubt, lots of people getting their vaccines pushed into the arms of hospital and healthcare workers, as they will all week,” he said.
Highlighting the logistics required to distribute the vaccine across the state, Pritzker said, “none of this is going to happen on a military timetable, but it is happening.”
When it does receive vaccines, the Edward-Elmhurst Health System, which also includes Elmhurst Hospital, expects to have 3,900 doses, which it will split evenly between employees at the two hospitals. Frontline workers caring for patients with COVID-19 and emergency department employees will receive priority for the vaccine, though it will be available to all employees, Hartenberger has said.
The first shipment will cover employees’ first dose of the vaccine. A required second dose will be provided from later shipments.
Edward Hospital will not require employees to receive the vaccine, though Hartenberger has said they are encouraged to get it. By Monday, all available slots for employees to sign up to receive the vaccine had been filled, he has said.
The vaccine requires storage at ultra-cold temperatures, posing a challenge to health departments and hospitals that might not previously have needed such equipment. Edward and Elmhurst hospitals both purchased ultra-cold freezers for the COVID-19 vaccine, but Hartenberger said this first shipment of vaccines will be breaking the “cold chain” and so the health system must use the entire shipment within roughly four days of receipt.
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