Number Of Pfizer COVID-19 Doses Coming To Illinois In Second Half Of December Cut In Half
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The number of Pfizer vaccine doses headed to Illinois in the second half of December is about to be cut in half. It's a two week setback.
This does not change the first batch coming to Illinois this week, which is expected to be about 109,000 doses. It affects the next two weeks. Gov. JB Prtizker called it disappointing news for the state's COVID-19 effort.
"I now no longer fully believe projections that are put in front of us by the federal government," Pritzker said.
The estimate of 8 million doses is being dropped nationally to 4.3 million.
"Consequentially we will have a resultant drop," said Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. "Our final numbers have not been concluded."
The news will also not impact the doses heading to Illinois this week. The cuts in projections are limited to the weeks of Christmas and New Years.
It's not clear what is behind the distribution hiccup.
"Don't have information on that," Ezike said. "Just reporting what we were told this morning."
It does does not appear to be an issue on the part of the drug maker.
"Pfizer has not had any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine, and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed. We are continuing to dispatch our orders to the locations specified by the U.S. government," a spokesperson told CBS 2's Chris Tye Wednesday.
If Illinois was to see its Pfizer shipments cut in half that would mean a drop from 109,000 doses to 55,000 per week.
A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services released the following statement regarding the the number of incoming doses to CBS 2:
Operation Warp Speed allocation numbers locked in with states have not been changed or adjusted. Only three official allocations have been provided to states: Week 1 Pfizer allocations were provided Friday, Nov. 20; week 1 Moderna allocations were provided Friday, Nov. 27; and week 2 Pfizer allocations were provided Tuesday, Dec. 14. Those are the only official allocation numbers that have been provided.
Jurisdictions are allocated doses pro rata by population over 18 years old. Allocations will depend on the amount of vaccine available. Each week, OWS will let states know how many doses are available to order against for the coming week. Shipments to a jurisdiction may arrive over several days.
Operation Warp Speed remains on track to allocate enough vaccine for about 20 million Americans to receive their first doses before the end of the month, pending Moderna receiving an EUA."
While it is a major setback for the Pfizer drug late month, the Moderna drug should be coming online next week and those impacted weeks.
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