Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to announce a new reopening plan later this week that could ultimately return the state to normalcy, but under new guidelines.
Illinois is currently under Phase 4 of the Illinois Restore Plan that the governor announced early in the pandemic last year. The next would be phase 5, which marks a complete reopening, but which requires a widely available vaccine or a highly effective treatment for the coronavirus.
But at a state Senate health committee meeting Monday, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Ngozi Ezike said a new reopening plan could be announced “later this week.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, Ezike said “there may be one more phase” between phase 4 and phase 5. Few details have been revealed, but one thing is certain: masks will continue to be required in the state, he said, adding that “masks must continue to be a mainstay.”
A spokesman for the governor confirmed that Pritzker has been in “discussions with industry and health experts.”
Earlier this month, Texas became the largest state to lift the mask rule and joined a fast-growing movement by governors and other leaders across the U.S. to relax restrictions. of COVID-19 despite requests from health officials not to keep the guard still low.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he removes most of the mask warrants he had imposed to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus. It also lifts most other restrictions, including limits on seats in restaurants.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey also announced she will extend the state’s mandate until April 9, but will lift the order after that date.
With the increase in coronavirus vaccinations in Illinois and the expansion of eligibility, a complete reopening is approaching, but Pritzker has repeatedly said the state is not there yet.
“You know, I’ve said from the very beginning that what we need is an effective vaccine that we can distribute widely and a very effective or very effective treatment that we can distribute widely and that we get there,” Pritzker said earlier this month. “I mean … about one in seven people in Illinois already has the first dose in their arms. We need to get closer to the herd’s immunity so that everyone feels, you know, that we’re beyond the fourth. phase and that we can really be able to reopen it completely. “
The World Health Organization defines herd immunity as “when a population is immune through vaccination or immunity developed through a previous infection,” although the group notes that for coronavirus this immunity “is it should be achieved by protecting people through vaccination, not exposing them to the pathogen that causes the disease. ”
The exact amount of herd immunity needed to reopen is still unclear, especially with regard to concerns about virus variants appearing in the U.S. and around the world and whether current vaccines will continue to offer protection.
“We are still learning about immunity to COVID-19,” the WHO reports. “Most people infected with COVID-19 develop an immune response in the first few weeks, but we don’t know how strong or lasting this immune response is or how it differs for different people. There have also been reports of people “Until we better understand the immunity of COVID-19, it will not be possible to know how immune a population is and how long that immunity lasts, let alone make future predictions.”
However, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city could see a summer more like “what we normally live in” and the governor’s office noted that McCormick Place could also host some events.
“We know a lot more about the virus, how it spread what we did a year ago,” Lightfoot said last week. “We know, in particular, about external events: we can manage them in a safe and consistent way with public health guidelines. So, as I said, I think the summer of 2021 is more like what we experienced normally “.
Illinois earlier this year raised its tiered mitigation plan and returned all of its regions to Phase 4 guidelines as cases and hospitalizations continue to steadily decline in the state. The move to Phase 4 restored the indoor dining room and reopened several businesses, while expanding capacity limits in others.
The first coronavirus vaccines were administered in Illinois in January when health workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities began receiving doses.
Since then, the state has entered its next phase of vaccine deployment, called phase 1B, opening the vaccines to front-line essential workers and residents 65 and older. This group was expanded to include people 16 years of age or older with certain high-risk medical conditions and comorbidities. Chicago, along with several suburbs and health care systems, chose not to enter the extended phase, citing limitations with supply.
On Monday, Pritzker said Illinois plans to break President Joe Biden’s promise to make all adults eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on May 1st.
“I just think people should start thinking a lot about … the fact that we’re going to open it up to everyone relatively sooner than I think people expected,” Pritzker said in an individual interview with NBC 5-year-old Mary Ann Ahern. .
In total, Illinois has received 5,038,635 doses of the vaccine and a total of 4,102,810 have been administered in the state.