NOTE: Watch the governor's daily update live at 2:30 p.m. in the player above.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to focus on a potential coronavirus vaccine during his daily COVID-19 update Friday.
What exactly the governor plans to discuss surrounding the vaccine remains unclear.
Previously, the governor has revealed that vials of the vaccine will be stored in the state's Strategic National Stockpile and has said there are no current plans for a statewide mandate.
“There aren’t any mandates in place,” he said earlier this week. “It’s certainly something that is always under discussion. What I know is that we’re going to be focusing on those populations that are most vulnerable, and also the people who treat the most vulnerable, and not just healthcare workers, but others who may work with the most vulnerable.”
The CDC has voted to include healthcare workers who care for COVID-19 patients and those working in nursing homes in the very first group that will receive the vaccine when it becomes publicly available.
The big question will be which group would be next to receive the vaccine, with those with underlying medical conditions, critical workers and senior citizens all potentially next in line for the treatment. The CDC has yet to make that determination, but with shipments of vaccines accelerating as more is produced and as more companies come to market with their own treatments, that decision will likely be made soon.
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The governor on Tuesday said the state was expecting more than 100,000 doses of the vaccine, which will be given to each person twice, according to early estimations.
Pritzker added the state can release all of the initially doses to residents because the second dose of the vaccine won't be needed until three or four weeks after the initial one. By that time, he said, the state will have received additional shipments.
"We will be able to serve more at the same time," Pritzker said.
In Chicago, city health officials are expecting to receive 20-25,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
"We don't know for sure exactly how much we'll get, but that is the estimation based on what the what the company has said is likely to be available at the beginning," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. "We are anticipating literally every single week, getting additional allotments. So our expectation is that that first week, maybe 20-25,000. If, for example, that's the Pfizer vaccine, if the Moderna vaccine is coming along just one week behind that, we would hope to not only be able to receive additional Pfizer vaccine, but be able to receive that first dose of the Moderna vaccine. And there's a federal system that's set up that basically allocates vaccine based on population, but then we have to be able to show that we are using that vaccine appropriately here. We have very good plans that will allow us to continue to scale vaccine at whatever rate it is made available."
