The Tri-County area is considering temporarily pausing or slowing down its requests for more COVID-19 vaccines because most of the region's top-priority clients have received a shot, or even gotten their second dose.
"I can say that between Tazewell, Woodford and Peoria, we are accepting another week's allocation, but we're really considering stopping after that because that would cover our 1A at that time," said Peoria City/County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson, referring to the group of health care workers and others who receive first priority for the COVID-19 vaccine.
She said strong partnerships between area health departments and hospital systems have quickly gotten the vaccines out to those who qualify for the first round.
Cutting back on the region's requests for vaccines will allow those shots to go elsewhere to cover the state's 1A population.
"Stopping it doesn't just mean we turn off vaccinations in our community overnight," she said. "It really does mean that we know that we're not pushing ourselves so far ahead that we're preventing another county from getting their 1A vaccinations fully allocated or done."
Hendrickson said that ultimately moves the state closer to moving onto 1B vaccine distribution for other frontline essential workers and all people aged 65 and older.
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