Officials at Advocate Condell Medical Center in suburban Libertyville say they will resume staff coronavirus vaccinations on Sunday after interrupting injections following responses from four staff members who received treatment this week.
The decision to interrupt vaccinations was made Friday after four subjects who received the treatment experienced tingling and increased heart rate shortly after the injection.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are temporarily pausing vaccinations at Condell, giving us time to better understand what may have triggered these reactions,” officials said in a statement Friday.
Hospital officials say they have conducted a “thorough internal evaluation,” in consultation with infectious diseases and clinical experts, and have decided to resume their vaccination program on Sunday.
According to officials, one in four cases appears to be a serious allergic reaction to the vaccine. The person suffering from the reaction was hospitalized overnight for follow-up, but officials say the person was discharged.
Due to privacy laws, the hospital was unable to go into details of that person’s medical history.
The other three individuals had to deal with more typical reactions to the vaccine, and all went well on Saturday, officials say.
“One of the team members who had a mild reaction … was a doctor from our medical staff,” says Dr. Robert Citronberg, Executive Medical Director of Infectious Diseases and Prevention at Advocate Aurora Health. “We contacted that doctor today who is feeling great. He is absolutely 100 percent behind the continued vaccination of our population, knowing how important it is to end the pandemic. He does not hesitate at all. “
The hospital will make one change to its procedures, extending the so-called “post-vaccination evaluation period” to 30 minutes after injection, a step they believe is more stringent than CDC recommendations for the vaccine.
According to the press release, around 6,000 hospital staff have received the vaccine so far.
Advocate Condell received the vaccines from the Lake County Health Department and said it has no reason to believe the fate was bad, as no other hospitals reported problems.
“We are confident that there are no integrity issues with so many vaccines,” said Citronberg. “We will still be using our vaccine supply within that 120 hour period.”
As a result of the situation in the suburban hospital, health officials have reassured the public that the vaccine is safe.
“… The benefit of vaccinations [the] the population far outweighs the risk, even though we know that we will occasionally have reactions to the vaccine, ”he said.