Excitement is spreading through Illinois as the state began moving into the early stages of Phase 1b of its vaccine administration plan Monday.

"11 months into this pandemic and it's starting to feel like help is on the way," said Illinois Governor J.B Pritzker.

In Gov. Pritzker's last press conference, he praised the Biden administration for making the pandemic a priority.

This new phase will allow frontline essential workers such as teachers, first responders, grocery store employees, and more, to be eligible to roll up their sleeves, in addition to any resident of the state who's age 65 and up

Although the Egyptian Health Department is excited to begin vaccinating those who are now eligible, they say their biggest concern is the supply.

"We're going to run into a lot of problems with supply, I talked to my corporate headquarters earlier today and we still don't have the vaccine to administer to the public," says Greta Smith, Shawneetown Nurse Practitioner.

With roughly 3.2 million Illinoisans now eligible to receive the vaccine, the wait time will be longer than expected.

"Were expecting approximately 26,000 first does outside of the city of Chicago. That's less than 4% of the 1B population," says Gov. Pritzker, who's asking everyone to have patience.

While health departments wait to receive those shipments, they are urging the public to call in to register for the waiting list.

When they receive the shipment vaccines, they will then schedule your appointment by priority.

The elderly will be first among those on the list to be vaccinated.