The Illinois Department of Public Health reported Thursday that the first cases of COVID variant B.1.351 have been confirmed in the state in a Rock Island resident. The state is currently reporting 22 cases of variant B 1.1.7 in the UK.
Doctors say it is very likely that the South African variant has already spread across the state.
“What’s worrying is that some of these variants seem, as I said, to appear more often, suggesting that there’s something about them that gives them an edge over other versions of COVID,” Dr. Mary Hayden said. , head of the Infectious Diseases Division at Rush University Medical Center.
Both variants appear to be spreading more quickly, health officials said, and could lead to more virus cases or even another increase.
“The South African variant is a little more problematic. It decreases the ability of vaccines to induce antibodies that would suppress it. But it does not completely eliminate it,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Al · Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Doctors said vaccine manufacturers are starting to adjust doses to keep up with mutations. Still, they reminded citizens of the urgent need to wear a face mask, stay socially distanced, limit face-to-face out-of-home meetings of all sizes, and get vaccinated when it’s your turn.
Meanwhile, Illinois health officials reported Thursday 2,825 new cases of COVID-19 and 102 deaths.
The total number of cases in Illinois now stands at 1,155,833, with a total of 19,841 deaths, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last 24 hours, laboratories have reported 96,525 specimens for a total of 16,918,910.
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As of Wednesday night, 1,954 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of these, 448 patients were in the ICU and 227 patients with COVID-19 with ventilators.
The preliminary positivity of the seven-day state test from February 4 to 10 is 3.9%.
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A total of 1,929,850 doses of vaccine were delivered to Illinois suppliers, including Chicago, with an additional 456,100 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care centers, raising the total number of deliveries. in Illinois at 2,385,950.
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The IDPH says vaccine distribution data are reported in real time and vaccine administration data is up to 72 hours.
IDPH reports that a total of 1,549,108 vaccine doses have been administered, including 226,974 in long-term facilities. The rotating average of seven days of administered vaccines is 56,094.
Chicago and area counties will not extend 1B eligibility
While the state is generally expanding who is eligible to get vaccinated in Group 1B, the city of Chicago and none of the neck counties will remain the same.
“We have administered the vaccine as quickly as the supply will allow,” Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle said. “And now we’re in the same situation as Los Angeles County, where we’re going to temporarily close some places because we’ve run out of current vaccine supplies. While other parts of the state may be ready to move on to the next phase, Chicago and Cook County is not. “
“Expanding this space would really result in our health care providers, our seniors, our front-line essential workers having even more difficulty getting vaccinated and we believe our audience is already frustrated enough,” he said. dir Mark Pfister, executive director of the Lake County Department of Health and Community Health Center.
“We don’t have an adequate supply with the current Phase 1b eligibility. It will now be much harder to meet demand without a significant increase in vaccine availability,” said Will County Department of Health Executive Director Sue Olenek.
“The DuPage County Department of Health is continuing to work to understand the governor’s announcement. The Illinois Department of Public Health shared that they will update their vaccination plan with additional details this weekend. We are currently focusing on vaccinate the 270,000 people who are already in phase 1b, in addition to the 1a health workers who have not yet had the opportunity to be vaccinated, ”the DuPage county health department said in a statement.
“We have not made any determination at this time,” the Kane County Department of Health said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Gov. JB Pritzker and IDPH expanded Group 1B to those over 16 with CDC-defined comorbidities and underlying conditions. In addition, Illinois will also prioritize people with disabilities, all effective Feb. 25, even when IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, acknowledged that supply remains a problem.
The governor, however, insisted he would remain optimistic the offer will increase over the coming weeks, especially with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine expected to be approved by the end of the month.
“It’s a one-dose vaccine,” Pritzker said. “It will be a great development in the world of vaccines and it will help us tremendously to vaccinate everyone.”
The high-risk categories covered in the expansion include:
-Cancer
-Chronic kidney disease
-COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
-Diabetes
-Condition of the heart
-Immunocompromised state of a solid organ transplant
-Obesity
-Pregnancy
-Lung disease
-Sickle cell disease
In a statement, the governor’s spokesman said the supply of vaccine has already begun to increase and that “the most medically vulnerable in our state should qualify for vaccination as soon as possible,” in part because “this group includes a disproportionately large proportion of vulnerable people of color. “
But there are no electricians, who were considered essential workers at the start of the pandemic, and who have worked in hospitals, airports, airfields, water treatment plants and even helped build a makeshift hospital on the site. McCormick.
“We haven’t lost any rhythm and have been working every day,” said Donn Finne, IBEW Local 134. “We’ve had a lot of COVID-19 cases through our members and we’ve had deaths in our membership.”
Finn said Local 134 has held several talks with the governor’s office and thought they were advancing on Wednesday in a conference call, but it was not.
“You tell me that 12,500 electricians shouldn’t be included, because from day one we’ve been doing our jobs, I don’t buy it,” he said.
Pritzker said he understands his frustration, but supply remains a big problem even though he said Illinois has administered the fifth largest number of vaccines nationwide.
“We have a long way to go, no doubt, to vaccinate everyone, but this is something that everyone in Illinois should know that things are moving in a positive direction,” Pritzker said.
Local 134 said it should include its members, a union that helped the governor be elected.
Governor Pritzker visits the Elgin vaccine site
Pritzker reported Thursday morning about vaccination efforts at the Elgin Mental Health Center in Elgin.
The vaccination site of the Elgin Department of Human Services accommodates many patients and has dozens of staff members. On Thursday morning, 50 patients and staff members received the second doses of the COVID 19 vaccine.
The expansion could nearly double the number of people currently eligible for the vaccine at a time when supply is low, but the governor expressed optimism that federal government deliveries would increase significantly in the coming weeks.
“My administration will work with all local public health departments to include these most at-risk people in their community vaccination plans in the coming weeks,” Pritzker said.
The deaths reported on Thursday include:
– County Clay: 1 woman aged 80 years
– Clinton County: 1 woman aged 80 years
– County of Coles: 1 man of 60 years
– Cook County: 1 man 30 years, 1 woman 40 years, 1 man 40 years, 1 woman 50 years, 4 men 50 years, 6 women 60 years, 6 men 60 years, 7 women 70, 7 men 70 years, 7 women 80 years, 7 men 80 years, 4 women 90 years, 2 men 90 years
– DeKalb County: 1 woman 90
– DuPage County: 1 woman 40, 3 men 70, 1 woman 80, 1 man 90
– Greene County: 1 woman aged 50 years
– Grundy County: 1 man of 60 years
– Jefferson County: 1 man from the 80s
– Kane County: 1 man from the 60s, 1 man from the 70s, 1 woman from the 90s
– Knox County: 1 woman aged 80 years
– Lake County: 1 50-year-old man
– Lawrence County: 1 man from the 60s
– Livingston County: 1 man from the 80’s
– Logan County: 1 woman 90
– Marion County: 1 man from the 70s
– McLean County: 1 man aged 60 years
– Monroe County: 1 man from the 70s, 1 woman from the 90s
– County of Moultrie: 1 man of the 70s
– Randolph County: 1 man from the 70s
– Sangamon County: 1 woman aged 70 years
– County of St. Clair: 1 woman of 50 years, 1 woman of 90 years
– Stephenson County: 1 man from the 80s
– Tazewell County: 1 woman 40, 1 woman 50, 1 male 70, 1 woman 90
– Vermilion County: 1 man from the 70s
– Washington County: 1 woman aged 90 years
– Whiteside County: 1 60-year-old man, 1 90-year-old man
– Will County: 1 man 50 years, 1 man 60 years, 3 men 70 years, 1 woman 80 years, 2 women 90
– Winnebago County: 1 woman 90
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