Activists want Pritzker, Lightfoot to fix ‘big mistakes’ in vaccine distribution plans

Two Chicago aldermen are among those urging the governor and the mayor to build trust with Black and Brown communities. They held a news conference Sunday, a day officials announced 115 more coronavirus deaths in Illinois.

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With most of the vaccines expected to be issued at hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drive-up COVID-19 testing sites, a group of activists argued Sunday that millions of African American, Latino and Indigenous peoples will be left out.

With most of the vaccines expected to be issued at hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drive-up COVID-19 testing sites, a group of activists argued Sunday that millions of African American, Latino and Indigenous peoples will be left out.

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As Illinois prepares to receive its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from the federal government this week, a group of community activists on Sunday called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot to “correct big mistakes” in their vaccine distribution plans.

They say those plans must be made more equitable for communities of color disproportionately impacted by the virus.

A group of activists that included Alds. Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) asked Pritzker and Lightfoot to expand outreach and work to build trust with Black and Brown communities.

Earlier this month, Pritzker laid out the state’s distribution plan for the first shipment of a COVID-19 vaccine. Illinois expects to receive 109,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the federal government by Dec. 19. About 23,000 of those vaccines, or 21%, will be sent to Chicago, with the rest expected to go to the 50 counties suffering the highest per capita coronavirus death rates; that’s about half the counties in the state.

Pritzker and Lightfoot said front-line hospital and health care workers will get the vaccine first, followed by long-term care facility workers and residents, essential workers and people 65 or older with underlying health conditions. It’ll be months before the vaccine is widely available to the general public.

Most vaccine doses are expected to be administered at hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drive-up COVID-19 testing sites. But the aldermen, along with other activists, held a news conference Sunday to argue that millions of African American, Latino and Indigenous peoples will be left out or delayed from receiving the vaccine without an extensive outreach program.

That’s why they’re demanding Pritzker and Lightfoot use Chicago armories and other state and city buildings as places for people to receive COVID-19 testing and flu shots; in a news release, they said those venues should be prepared as vaccine distribution sites, as well.

This comes as state health officials on Sunday announced 7,216 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases in the state, as well as 115 more coronavirus-related deaths.

The new cases were detected among the latest batch of 63,648 tests reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health over the last day. That slightly increases the state’s seven-day positivity rate from 8.9% Saturday to 9.1% Sunday. Despite the small uptick over the last day, that figure — which experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading — has continued to trend downward since it checked in last month at 12.8%, the highest since May. It has decreased a full percentage point since Dec. 6.

Hospitalizations in Illinois have also been on the decline after the most recent surge in cases led to hospitals treating the most COVID-19 patients they’ve seen during the pandemic. As of Saturday night, 5,073 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Illinois, with 1,080 of those patients in intensive care units and 612 on ventilators, officials said.

Still, the state continues to feel the effects of the virus’ late fall resurgence in terms of deaths. Of Sunday’s 115 fatalities, 28 were reported in the Chicago area; they included a Cook County man and woman in their 20s.

The state’s total death toll now stands at 14,291. Of those, 2,336 — more than 16% of the total — have occurred since Thanksgiving.

Illinois has administered more than 11.7 million coronavirus tests since March, with 848,904 people confirmed to have the respiratory virus — about 6.7% of the state’s population.

Most people who contract the virus have mild to no symptoms. About 97% of Illinoisans who have contracted the virus have recovered, officials said.

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