Pritzker dismisses criticism of Illinois’ vaccination program

(The Center Square) — Gov. J.B. Pritzker continued to tout Illinois’ effectiveness in its COVID-19 vaccination efforts on Friday during a tour of a vaccination site.

As of Thursday, the New York Times ranked Illinois 45th among all states in the percentage of people getting their first shot at just 7.1%.

Pritzker made a stop at a vaccination site in Rockford on Friday and boasted about Illinois’ vaccine program.

“Just last Monday, we became the sixth state to surpass a million doses administered, and we are one of the top states in the nation in the number of daily doses administered,” said Pritzker.

As of Tuesday, 34 states haven’t even been shipped a million doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Illinois, more than 800,000 doses remain on shelves. That is about what Alabama has received from the federal government.

Five states have received more vaccine doses than Illinois: Pennsylvania, Texas, California, New York and Florida. All five have a higher percentage of people who have received their first shot.

The state is trying to speed up the process by providing more locations to be vaccinated. On Thursday, 80 new locations were added to the list of COVID-19 vaccination locations open to the public bringing the statewide total to 390. The new sites include 78 additional Walgreens locations, as well as two Illinois National Guard-supported locations in Cook and St. Clair counties.

Illinois is in Phase 1B of its vaccination program, which includes people 65 years or older and front line workers, such as police and fire personnel, teachers, postal employees, and grocery store workers. Earlier this week, legislators were added to the group, an about-face by the governor.

In January, Pritzker said: “There’s no effort to give special dispensation to elected officials in the state of Illinois. Elected officials will fall in wherever they fall in as the rest of the population does.”

The governor’s visit to Winnebago County on Friday came as the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,660 new confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus along with 83 additional deaths. So far, the IDPH has reported a total of 1,141,219 cases of COVID-19 and 19,526 deaths since the pandemic started.

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