Rev. Jesse Jackson moved to Chicago rehab facility after COVID-19 hospitalization; wife Jacqueline in ICU

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The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been moved to a rehab facility as he fights to recover from COVID-19, but his wife, Jacqueline, has been moved to an ICU at a Chicago hospital, the family announced Friday.

The couple was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital last Saturday. Rev. Jackson, 79, will start "intensive occupational and physical therapy," son Jonathan Jackson said, noting that his father’s Parkinson’s symptoms have become "more in focus" as his coronavirus symptoms subsided.

However, doctors moved wife Jacqueline, 77, to an ICU. She "is not on a ventilator but is receiving increased oxygen and is breathing on her own," a statement from the family continued. 

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Rev. Jackson, the civil rights icon and two-time presidential candidate, publicly received the coronavirus vaccine in January. However, a family spokesman said Jacqueline was not vaccinated at the time she was hospitalized; he did not elaborate.

Rev. Jesse Jackson receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this past January in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Members of the faith community were rallying in support of the Jackson family, Fox 32 reported.  The Rev. Ira Acree of Greater St. John Bible Church in Chicago spoke at a prayer service for the family, saying, "To see Reverend Jackson and his wife stuck with COVID-19 is heartbreaking and jarring, and has hit home for many of us who have been personally mentored by him, personally inspired by his life’s work." 

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Jonathan Jackson’s statement expressed gratitude for the doctors and "the love that is being poured out to our family from around the world."

Rev. Jackson has continued to make headlines for the civil rights cause.  Back in July, police arrested him for failing to leave a "sit-in" at the Phoenix office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., a target of protests for her opposition to ending the filibuster, seen as a hurdle toward passing voting rights legislation in Congress. Earlier this month, he and some 200 other people were arrested by Capitol police in Washington for crowding the street in another protest against the filibuster and for election reform.