SPRINGFIELD — Governor JB Pritzker became one of more than 800,000 Illinois who received a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot prior to his first overseas trip as Governor on Tuesday.
Pritzker and his top staff planned to leave for London on Tuesday to meet with business leaders on Illinois’ economic development opportunities. Then, on Friday, I headed to Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Speaker of the House Emmanuel Chris Welch (D-Hillside) and Speaker of the Senate Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) planned to join the Illinois Group for the leg of their trip to London.
Pritzker received a booster vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech after receiving a single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March. He pointed out that the US Food and Drug Administration recently approved a “mixed and matching” vaccine.
He also said he was preparing to leave for London on Tuesday night, so it usually lasted about a day and wasn’t worried about potential side effects, including injection site fatigue and pain.
Dr. Godi Ezike, director of the Pritzker and Illinois Public Health Service, also asked if the state would require vaccinations for children to attend school.
According to Ejike, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is only considering an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 5-11. Its approval could be as early as this week.
Mr Ejike said the mandate decision would not be considered until full approval was obtained.
“So I think it’s too early to think about asking the school for them,” she said. “Maybe you’ll need standard approval like Pfizer for individuals over the age of 18.”
The need for a vaccine is not currently being considered, but “it could probably change in the future,” Ejike said.
Pritzker said any mission must pass the state general assembly.
“Here in Illinois, the requirement is to go through the legislature as others have,” he said. “As you know, when children are already in school, many vaccinations are needed to prevent them from getting polio, measles, mumps, rubella, etc. Is required.
“So if it was approved-and I haven’t seen it on the horizon yet-but if it was approved, it would be just another vaccination for children. “
Pritzker and Ejike urged all qualified Illinois to receive booster shots.
Populations covered by the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are 65 years of age or older, and live in a long-term care environment, work, or high-risk environment with a final dose of 6 months or longer. People over the age of 18. in front.
People who have been vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson are eligible if they are 18 years of age or older and have been first vaccinated at least 2 months ago.
Parents of children aged 5 to 11 who want to vaccinate their children when approval is imminent can call a pediatrician to schedule an injection or contact the school to hold a vaccine clinic, Pritzker said. Said that it was necessary to ask. He said the vaccine remained free.
The positive rate for the COVID-19 test was 2% on Tuesday, hospitalizations were flat, and Illinois was far ahead of the pandemic a year ago. But more vaccinations will help stop the larger winter spread, the governor said.
Approximately 70% of the state’s population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated with COVID-19, and 76% are vaccinated at least once.
Unvaccinated people between the ages of 30 and 49 are 18 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than people of the same age who were vaccinated, according to Ejike.
Pritzker said his administration monitors daily hospitalization and positive rates when considering what to do with masking requirements.
“The new hospitalization is flat,” Pritzker said. “That’s not a good sign. It’s not what happened with the previous dip from the surge. I’ve been down here for a while, but now it’s leveling off at a much higher level than in the summer.
“So the question is, is it just a temporary situation?”
In the summer, the positive rate dropped to 0.6%, the number of beds used by COVID-19 patients temporarily fell below 400, and the number of beds in the intensive care unit used daily dropped to 76. Did.
As of Monday night, COVID-19 patients were using 1,274 beds, a slight increase in that number. There were 294 ICU beds used by COVID patients.
Capitol News Illinois is a non-profit, non-partisan news service for state governments that is distributed in over 400 newspapers throughout the state. It is primarily funded by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Pritzker gets COVID-19 vaccine booster ahead of overseas travel | Coronavirus
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