CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- One of the state’s largest hospital systems said it hopes to begin vaccinating its frontline healthcare workers by Wednesday afternoon.
"Now we have hope. We finally have light at the end of the tunnel," said Dr. Robert Citronberg, Executive Medical Director of Infectious Disease and Prevention for Advocate Aurora Health.
Dr. Citronberg said shipments of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine should be arriving Tuesday and Wednesday to Advocate Aurora Health’s 10 Illinois hospitals. He said there was a slight delay from the state.
"The vaccination is an urgency, not an emergency and I think that it’s important to get it right. So, I think the slight delay is not of any significance," Dr, Citronberg said.
He said he believes the delay was the result of the state being extra careful in inventorying and distributing the vaccine.
Dr. Citronberg expects to receive more shipments of vaccine next week after the Moderna vaccine gets FDA approval. He said his goal is to get all of Advocate’s 75,000 employees immunized in the next few weeks, even Advocate Aurora Health's employees who work from home.
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He said Advocate's 16 hospitals in Wisconsin have already received vaccines and started immunizing frontline healthcare workers Tuesday.
Dr. Citronberg said Advocate will be monitoring the people who receive the vaccine for any reaction to it.
He said it's important for people to remember that whenever it's their turn to get the vaccine, they return three weeks later to get the second dose. He said it's also important people receive the same vaccine. If they got the Pfizer vaccine for the first dose, they should get the Pfizer vaccine for the second dose.