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Chicago won’t open a 24-hour vaccination site yet, Arwady says
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Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Chicago public health officials said they have no plans to open a vaccination site that would be open 24 hours a day — as some other cities have done.
At a press conference on the city’s vaccinations efforts, officials were asked about the possibility of opening an around-the-clock center to speed up vaccines and increase accessibility for essential workers. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the main focus right now is increasing vaccine supply.
“At this point, there’s not plans for a 24-hour situation,” Arwady said “We’ll see what the demand looks like and we’ll see what the vaccine supply looks like.”
Chicago is set to expand vaccine eligibility next Monday to additional essential workers like those in food service and hospitality, as well as those over 16 years old with underlying health conditions.
Since the start of the vaccine rollout, the city has prioritized healthcare and the first group of essential workers, according to Arwady.
“We’re always interested in new ideas, but we’ve been very focused here,” Arwady said “So, we’ll keep prioritizing those workers and we’ll see if they are more creative things we need to do to reach them.”
Read the full story from Sophie Sherry here.
News
9:30 a.m. State Rep. LaShawn Ford resigns from Loretto Hospital board over vaccine flap
State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford has resigned from the board of trustees at Loretto Hospital over how it handled revelations of improperly providing vaccinations to people not yet eligible for the shots.
“I am very disappointed with the recent developments at The Loretto Hospital regarding its use of coronavirus vaccine entrusted to the hospital,” Ford said in a statement issued Tuesday morning.
“Yesterday, I submitted my resignation to The Loretto Hospital’s Board Chairman Edward Hogan because I strongly disagreed with how the reprimand of the hospital leadership was handled. As the state representative for the hospital and as a resident in its service area, I will continue to fight for resources for The Loretto Hospital, a safety-net hospital in the Austin community.”
The hospital’s CEO George Miller and COO Dr. Anosh Ahmed have come under fire in recent days after revelations the hospital improperly provided vaccinations to workers at Trump Tower, where Ahmed lives; at a suburban church that Miller is a member of; and a luxury watch shop on the Gold Coast where Ahmed shops.
Block Club Chicago broke the stories.
A hospital spokesman has said the two executives received reprimands, but details about what punishments they face have not been revealed.
In a phone call Tuesday morning, Ford said “it’s critical that consequences are more transparent.”
Ford previously told the Chicago Sun-Times the two would face “harsh reprimands.”
Read the full story from Mitch Dudek here.
New Cases & Vaccination Numbers
- Illinois logged another 1,220 new confirmed, and probable, cases of the coronavirus, as well as 22 deaths.
- The new cases were found in a batch of 47,374 tests.
- So far, nearly one in three adult Illinois residents have received the vaccine, including about 64% of those 65 and older.
