CHICAGO — Gov. J.B. Pritzker Friday at his daily briefing laid out the plan for distributing the COVID-19 vaccine once it is approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
If the vaccine from Pfizer is approved next week, Illinois is expected to receive 109,000 doses in mid-December.
The initial doses will be going to health care workers in the 50 counties with the highest number of cases, according to Pritzker.
“There will be shipments of more and more vaccines following that first shipments arrival,” said Pritzker. “Although the numbers now may seem relatively small in comparison to our population, those numbers will increase over the subsequent weeks and months.”
Tazewell County ranks 48 out of 50, so that will be one of the places the first batch goes to.
The state has about 655,000 health care workers that will be first up to receive the vaccine. After that, it will be distributed to long-term care and assisted living facilities.
“This will not be a quick process,” said Pritzker. “With the two dose timeline, no single person will be fully vaccinated even by Christmas.
“It will likely be months before people with low-risk factors for COVID-19 see their first dose.”
The FDA is scheduled to meet Dec. 10 to discuss emergency-use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine.
