Politics & Government
Illinois Healthcare Workers To Get COVID-19 Vaccinations Before Long-Term-Care Residents
"In order to protect our residents and caregivers, long-term care providers need states to distribute the vaccine as soon as possible."
By Cole Lauterbach
Who should get the very first COVID-19 vaccinations?
Find out what's happening in Across Illinoisfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Illinois plans to make it available to healthcare and hospital workers first but organizations representing long-term-care providers say their workers and residents should be at the front of the line.
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Monday that the state’s plan remains as it was before the CDC added LTC facility residents to their “1A” priority list last week.
Find out what's happening in Across Illinoisfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“We have a plan to address the long-term-care facilities through weeks two, three and four but for week one, that is supposed to be the healthcare workers,” she said. “There may be additional tweaks and I hope that you will allow us to continue to do our work.”
Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of the National Center for Assisted Living, said LTC facility personnel and residents are in the front of the CDC’s line for a reason.
“A one-month delay in distributing the vaccine to all long-term care residents and caregivers could result in more than 20,000 of our residents losing their life when a vaccine could have saved them,” he said. “In order to protect our residents and caregivers, long-term care providers need states to distribute the vaccine as soon as humanly possible and take aggressive action to reduce the level of COVID in their state.”
Healthcare Heroes Illinois, a nonprofit representing frontline health care workers, said Thursday that the state’s first line of defense against COVID-19 should be the first immunized but should also have legal immunity reinstated.
“Gov. Pritzker must stand by our frontline healthcare heroes not only by prioritizing them for the vaccine but also by immunizing them from unfair lawsuits that distract from the job at hand: Saving lives and stopping the spread of this virus,” HHI spokesman Paul Gaynor said.
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