Tim Shelley / Peoria Public Radio
By the end of this week, the first few thousand residents of Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford Counties in the 1B group will have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Local health departments are allocating their vaccine shipments to OSF HealthCare, UnityPoint Health, and Heartland Health Services for wider distribution to the 1B population.
That population is a large group, and the process will take quite a while, said Peoria City/County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson.
"With the amount of allocation that we're getting, which is limited, if we as a Tri-County see anywhere between three and four thousand vaccines coming into our counties each week, it will take us over eight weeks to vaccinate that population," she said. "So the short answer is, we need patience during this time."