During his daily COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, December 16, Governor J.B. Pritzker updated the number of vaccines that are expected in Illinois.
The governor said previously federal authorities had planned to ship out 8 million vaccines across the country during the week of December 21. The US Department of Health and Human services said that estimate has been cut nearly in half, to ship out 4.3 million doses nationally.
The shipment plan for the following week had been 8.8 million, but was cut down to 4.3 million.
"This development will likely cut our state's projected Pfizer shipments this month by roughly half, the same is true across the rest of the nation," said the governor.
These changes do not affect shipments that have already arrived, he said.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health said that although vaccinations are available, it doesn't mean the pandemic is over.
"It is the beginning of the end," she said, "it's this last mile. But the last mile of this super marathon has quite a few bumps and hurdles."
She said to continue wearing masks, avoiding gatherings and social distancing.
For the pandemic to end, there first has to be enough vaccine doses and secondly people have to get vaccinated. She explained a layered approach of people starting to get vaccinated plus wearing masks and maintaining distance is what will get us through the pandemic.
In his briefing Tuesday, after witnessing the first vaccinations, the governor said he was pleased to announce that 100,000 more frontline healthcare workers in Illinois would be receiving their first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
People who get the Pfizer vaccine will need two doses, 28 days apart.
According to an FDA fact sheet, people who are 16 and older are approved to get the COVID-19 vaccine. People who have had allergic reactions to vaccines previously are not recommended to get the vaccine.
The Center for Disease Control and and Prevention have issued guidance on who will be the first people to get the vaccine, which has been split up into phases. Phase 1a recommends healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents get vaccinated; this adds up to about 24 million people. Phase 1b recommends essential workers be vaccinated. Phase 1c recommends adults with high-risk medical conditions get vaccinated.
COVID-19 numbers
On Wednesday, 7,123 new cases were reported in Illinois. This makes for a total of 870,600 statewide cases.
A new 146 deaths were reported, making for a total of 14,655 deaths, statewide.
Overnight, 4,793 people were in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 1,045 were in the ICU and 590 were on ventilators.
The state has surpassed the 12 million mark where it comes to testing.
