PEORIA, Ill. — The Peoria City/County Health Department provided more information on its vaccination distribution plan Thursday as Illinois surpassed one million COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Illinois Department of Public Health released its version 4.0 of its vaccination plan that further clarifies group 1A and helps with planning towards vaccinating group 1B, according to Public Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson.
Entities whose staff and residents who qualify for tier 1A include hospitals, medical outpatient, public health clinics, local health departments’ point of dispensing, federal qualified health centers and long-term care facilities, said Hendrickson.
Long-term care facilities include skilled nursing, assisted living, intermediate care, state-run veteran’s homes, state operated mental health centers, among others, stated Hendrickson.
Other 1A personnel included are nurses, dentists, physicians, respiratory technicians, pharmacists, among others, said Hendrickson.
“In our community alone, we have over 10,000 individuals that qualify for these different types of personnel settings,” said Hendrickson. “1A is a large group of individuals.”
Before moving to tier 1B, Hendrickson said communities across the state need to complete their tier 1A vacccinations.
“As the press conference from the governor’s office indicated, we want to move together as a state, and we want to make sure we are on pace with our counterparts in places that have had little vaccine.”
According to Hendrickson, one region can move onto 1B unilaterally, but vaccinations could be slowed in that area so that one region does not move too far ahead of another and prevent it from distributing their vaccines.
Hendrickson did not know how many tier 1A individuals within the community had been vaccinated, but she did say approximately 3,600 individuals were inoculated with first doses last week.
Region 2, which includes Tazewell, Woodford and Peoria Counties, could move back to Tier 2 mitigations on January 15.
