Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area
Frustrated over the rocky start of COVID-19 vaccinations in Illinois, local health officials expressed dismay to a panel of state lawmakers about the state’s oversight of the rollout Thursday.
Pritzker administration officials countered that the pace of vaccinations is picking up and will get even faster as more vaccine doses become available in coming weeks. They pleaded for patience and blamed the sluggish start on the lack of enough doses to meet the overwhelming demand.
Meanwhile, the federal government is sending additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines to pharmacies across the country, but in Illinois, the initial doses will only be available at Walgreens — not CVS Health, Mariano’s, Jewel-Osco or Walmart.
Walgreens expects to begin administering the extra doses Friday, in its Illinois stores in medically underserved and “socially vulnerable” areas. Walgreens anticipates initially receiving about 39,300 doses a week, which will be in addition to the doses it already receives through the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Illinois COVID-19 vaccine tracker: Here’s where the state stands
COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on key metrics in your area
Illinois coronavirus graphs: The latest data on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more
COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood
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Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:15 a.m. Pritzker to tour Chicago Heights vaccination site
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was set to tour a vaccination site in Chicago Heights midday Friday, a day after the state announced a total of more than 850 places administering vaccines in Illinois.
Pritzker was to tour the Aunt Martha’s Chicago Heights Community Health Center in Chicago Heights midday Friday, according to his office. The center is a federally qualified health center vaccination site for Cook County, according to a release.
On Thursday, state officials announced more than 340 new vaccination sites, most of them Walgreens Pharmacies receiving vaccines allocated through the federal program managing vaccinations and four of them CVS Pharmacies receiving vaccines through state allocation.
Check back for updates. — Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Health care workers, students spending free time as volunteers giving COVID-19 vaccination shots. ‘This is one of the most therapeutic things’
Montrice Brown was a 46-year-old casino worker with a high-risk pregnancy when she decided to finally make a career change.
Brown always had nursing in the back of her mind, but it was her obstetrician’s care and encouragement while she was pregnant that inspired her to enroll in nursing school.
Now 47, Brown has a healthy 18-month-old daughter and is on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic as a nursing student who volunteers her time giving shots of the vaccine.
“I’m so motivated. I am so pumped. I am so ready to lend my help,” Brown said. “I should have done it 20 years ago.”
Brown’s unusual journey from casinos to nursing school has placed her in a key role in the state’s vaccine rollout: that of the volunteer.
Read the full story here. — Madeline Buckley
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Here are some recent stories related to COVID-19:
Pritzker administration defends coronavirus vaccine rollout as local health leaders complain of poor communication.
Cook County joins Chicago in rejecting Pritzker’s expansion of COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to people with preexisting health conditions.
More vaccine doses heading to Illinois Walgreens stores through federal program. But for CVS, Jewel, Walmart? Not yet.
CPS schools reopen — again — with celebration and contention, as alderman calls CTU fight a “hostage takeover of our children.”
Biden says U.S. will have enough vaccine doses by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans.
