Beginning February 25, Illinois residents aged 16 and over with health problems or disabilities will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine, Governor JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday.
That will include pregnant women and people with diabetes, heart disease, cancer or sickle cell disease, said Pritzker after visiting a new mass vaccination site in Quincy.
The Phase 1B expansion of the Illinois distribution plan will follow CDC guidelines for vaccinating people with these and other conditions, said the Democratic governor.
For now, about 4 million of the state’s 12.7 million residents have been given the green light to sign up for vaccines – if they can track an appointment to get one of the coveted missed doses.
Eligible residents so far include health professionals, residents and asylum workers, some other “essential frontline” workers and all residents aged 65 and over. In expanded Phase 1B, the age requirement will be reduced to 16 for those with underlying diseases, although it is unclear how large this population is.
“Those who are under 65 and living with comorbidities are at high risk for serious complications or even death,” said Pritzker. “We don’t have to waste time protecting them.”
Other conditions covered in the expanded phase include people who have or have had chronic kidney disease, COPD, lung disease, an “immunocompromised state” from a solid organ transplant and obesity, according to Pritzker’s office.
“Governor Pritzker’s decision to expand Phase 1B to include people with disabilities adequately prioritizes people with disabilities in the vaccination distribution plan, and we thank and applaud the governor for his leadership,” said John Herring, executive director of the Network of Centers for Illinois Independents Alive.
The governor noted that weekly federal government vaccine shipments have increased by about 30% since President Joe Biden took office, while a third vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is nearing federal approval.
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But doses have still been difficult to find for eligible Illinoisans. Almost 2.2 million doses were sent to the state in all, and about 1.5 million went to arms.
Only 327,413 people received both necessary doses, or about 2.6% of the Illinois population. The Illinois Department of Public Health aims to vaccinate 80% of the population to obtain collective immunity.
Nearly 63,000 doses were administered across the state on Tuesday, officials said, the fourth highest daily total ever, bringing the state’s seven-day average to a maximum of 55,135 doses per day.
“I wish I could make enough vaccine appear magically so that we could vaccinate all of our Illinois residents now, I really wish,” said Pritzker. “This will happen in the coming months, but today we all have to be patient, as more vaccine is still being produced. And in the meantime, without a doubt, we will all wear our masks and follow attenuations so that more of our neighbors are healthy and alive when it is their turn to be vaccinated.
A total of 517 vaccination sites have been installed across the state, including 134 new ones in the past week.
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Infection rates have dropped significantly since the first doses of Illinois were injected two months ago.
Public health officials announced 2,825 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 detected among 82,885 tests, keeping the state’s average rate of positivity at 3.3% – the lowest level that has fallen since the summer.
Coronavirus hospitalizations are at a third of the state’s peak levels, too, with 2,082 patients occupying beds across the state on Tuesday night.
But the virus claimed 53 more lives, including 23 in the Chicago area.
This daily toll is at the state average for the past week. The death rate has dropped by more than half compared to a month ago.
Since last March, nearly 1.2 million Illinoisans have been infected and at least 19,739 have died.