Vax or mask: Cover up until you sleeve up
COVID vaccine goes to health-care workers first, while everyone else needs to observe 3 W’s
Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine is no time for people to let their guard down in the pandemic. (Illinois.gov)
By Ted Cox
The governor and the public health director cheered the “imminent” approval of a COVID-19 vaccine Friday, but advised Illinoisans to observe mitigation measures until everyone has a chance to be inoculated next year.
A week after they laid out initial plans for vaccination, Gov. Pritzker repeated that it would first go to frontline health-care workers, along with residents at long-term-care facilities, after expected approval of the Pfizer vaccine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which he said was “imminent.” Others are expected to follow.
“Illinois is prepared to quickly get this vaccine to our frontline health-care workforce,” Pritzker said at the daily coronavirus briefing at the Thompson Center in Chicago.
But in the meantime the pandemic still rages on. Dr. Ngozi Ezike reported Friday that the state had confirmed 9,420 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the Illinois total to 832,951, while 190 new deaths attributed to COVID-19 took the statewide toll to 14,050.
The case numbers were down from recent peaks, and the testing positivity rate stood at 9.5 percent, but deaths remained high, tracing the earlier peak in infections. The state reported more than 1,000 deaths this week alone. Some 5,141 COVID patients were in hospitals across the state, 1,081 under intensive care and 635 on ventilators.
Ezike advised everyone to continue to observe mitigation measures starting with wearing a mask, washing hands, and watching social distance. “When we say all we can do is a mask, that can do it. That’s more than enough to do it,” she insisted. “Wear a mask and refrain from these gatherings. Now, that would keep these numbers down. That would bring down the death totals. That would give a break to the health-care workers who have been just overtaxed, overstretched in our hospitals right now.
“We’re already teetering,” Ezike added. “We have some areas where there are a dozen ICU beds in the region right now. So a big surge cannot be handled.”
Ezike continued to advise Illinoisans not to travel to visit extended family for the holidays. But, knowing some will anyway, she added, “I do recommend testing before and after your visits or your travel. But please understand that having those tests does not really give your a free pass and assure that there could be no transmission of infection.”