Chicago is pausing use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine, the city said Tuesday, based on U.S. regulators' recommendation amid an investigation into six.
Illinois allocation of J&J vaccine this week was 17,000 doses, IDPH said. That s out of a total of 551,590 doses allocated to the state this week, per IDPH s website.
Next week, the state anticipated receiving 5,800 Johnson & Johnson doses out of a total of 483,720 expected doses, officials said. That equates to just over 1% of the weekly allocation.
Illinois health officials did not immediately respond to requests on how many total doses of Johnson & Johnson s vaccine the state has received since shipments began earlier this year.
Chicago has received a total of 91,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in five shipments since February, according to the city s data. It s not clear how many of those doses have already been administered.
”There’s a lot more related to mixing that vaccine, you have to use saline, it s generally done by pharmacists or people with more training, it s not an ideal setting for an outpatient setting.”
Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines have been circulating across the U.S., both requiring two shots for full protection and according to an analysis by U.S. regulators, Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine also offers strong protection against severe COVID-19.
But as more Johnson & Johnson vaccines become available in Illinois, Moderna remains the easiest to distribute, particularly to outpatient providers.
“Moderna has really been the one vaccine that s been useful for all of these outpatient settings which, from my standpoint is really where the money is in terms of getting vaccine to go into neighborhoods to smaller providers and Johnson and Johnson now coming in only has to be refrigerated,” Arwady said.
CHICAGO (WLS) A COVID vaccination site in the Pullman neighborhood is administering 1,000 vaccines to residents over the age of 40 on Tuesday.
Residents in the 9th Ward got a robocall from their alderman alerting them about this site and they were able to sign up on a link over the web. All of the appointments filled up fast.
The Far South Side has been hit hard by COVID-19. Until now Arnita Rainey couldn t find anywhere to go. Well before this came available, I wasn t able to even get an appointment, Rainey said. I tried at like Advocate and they wouldn t give me an appointment because they say you have to be over 65.