Winnebago County Health Administrator Dr. Sandra Martell announced late Tuesday that a shipment of 9,000 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is now expected to arrive in the county by early next week.
Mercyhealth, OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center and SwedishAmerican health systems had announced earlier in the day that COVID-19 vaccines scheduled to arrive this week for their Winnebago County locations had been delayed.
The health systems said this would affect around 6,700 county residents who were scheduled for their second dose of the vaccine.
All three hospitals said at the time they were awaiting further information on vaccine availability and will contact patients to reschedule their second dose when vaccines become available to them.
The hospitals said that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends getting the second shot two weeks after the first, the CDC says it can be administered up to six weeks after the first dose without having an impact on the vaccine's effectiveness. That means that a person would not have to repeat getting the initial shot for it to work. The scheduled arival of the new vaccine shipment falls well within that timeframe.
All three encouraged anyone who needs a first dose to register with as many vaccine sites as possible, and take the first available appointment.
