The next few months of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic will rely on the Three V’s — Variants, Vigilance and Vaccines. Promising news at CGH Medical Center: we have vaccinated 1175 of our staff members since December 2020.
Since we began, we have had no vaccinated employees test positive for COVID-19.
Together, we are helping put an end to this pandemic!
Variants — Vaccines can reduce the risk of severe illness from COVID-19 variants. But that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down. To reduce the number of viral variants, we need to reduce the viral replication in the population overall.
Vigilance — Viruses can only change or mutate if they are allowed to replicate, so with large numbers of people being infected, the virus has a greater chance to evolve into more contagious, vaccine-escaping variants. This means that we need to continue with the current masking, social distancing, and other guidelines. These steps will not only slow down the spread of the viruses, but also help reduce your chance of being exposed, all while continuing COVID-19 vaccinations.
Vaccines — When someone is vaccinated, they are protecting themselves and the community and bringing us one step closer to ending the pandemic. The faster we can accomplish this, the faster we will be able to go back to our normal lives.
CGH has a waitlist available for the following individuals who want to receive the COVID-19 vaccine:
CGH patients 65 years of age or older
CGH patients ages 16-64 with a disability*
CGH patients ages 16-64 with any of the following health-complicating conditions: Obesity, Diabetes, Pulmonary Diseases, Smoking, Heart Conditions, Chronic Kidney Disease, Cancer, Solid Organ Transplant, Sickle Cell Disease, or Pregnancy.
If you meet any of these criteria and are interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, please sign up for our waitlist at cghmc.com/vaccine (English) or cghmc.com/vacuna (Spanish). Registering for our waitlist does not mean you have an immediate appointment, as vaccine supply is limited everywhere. It does put you on the waitlist that we will use to schedule vaccination appointments.
*For this purpose, persons with a disability is defined as a “person who is, and who is expected to indefinitely continue to be, subject to any of the following five types of disabilities: physical disability, developmental disability, visual disability, hearing disability, or mental disability.” This definition is aligned with Illinois Statute 15 ILCS 335/4a.