The expansion comes as the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 2,022 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 44 deaths on Wednesday.
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Several county health departments say it may take weeks before they can expand the vaccine’s eligibility to people under 65 with underlying diseases, despite state guarantees that supplies will increase substantially soon.
Governor JB Pritzker said that federal deliveries to Illinois will increase to 100,000 daily doses in mid-March – almost double what the state is currently administering.
“I encourage all of our local health departments, especially those that are not yet in pace for expansion, to act as quickly as possible to expand our reach in light of the ever-increasing federal supply,” said Pritzker.
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But in Lake County, less than a third of people 65 and older have been vaccinated.
The county is adhering to CDC guidelines that say 60 to 70 percent of people in the current phase should be vaccinated before expansion, unless supply exceeds demand.
“We are seeing a huge demand and I can say that I receive emails every day from people 65 and over who are clamoring for vaccination,” said Mark Pfister, executive director of Lake County Health Dept.
In fact, on the eve of the state’s 1B expansion, no county health department in the area has announced when that change will take place.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing what the situation will look like in the next four to six weeks and then making a decision on how and when to expand to the next group,” said Chris Hoff, DuPage County Health Department.
In Chicago, it may be late March.
“I don’t want to create expectations that we simply cannot meet, especially when we still need to focus on our seniors,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
There may still be some providers, including pharmacies, in our area that expand eligibility, but they need to receive the vaccine directly from the state or federal government, rather than from those counties.
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IDPH is reporting a total of 1,179,342 COVID-19 cases, including 20,374 deaths.
As of Tuesday night, 1,511 patients in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of these, 338 patients were in the ICU and 172 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
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In the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported testing 82,976 samples for a total of 17,804,537 since the pandemic began.
The preliminary positivity of the seven-day state test from February 17 to 23 is 2.8%.
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A total of 2,584,125 doses of vaccine were delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago, with an additional 445,200 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care facilities, bringing the total number delivered to Illinois to 3,029,325 .
IDPH said vaccine delivery numbers are reported in real time and vaccine delivery numbers take up to 72 hours.
IDPH reports that a total of 2,310,929 doses of vaccine have been administered, including 291,273 in long-term care facilities. The seven-day moving average of vaccines administered is 58,141.
Deaths reported on Wednesday include:
-Cook County: 1 woman 60 years, 3 men 60 years, 4 women 70 years, 3 men 70 years, 2 women 80 years, 1 man 80 years, 1 woman 90 years, 1 man 90 years
-DuPage County: 1 male of 60 years
-Ford County: 1 man from the 80s
– Henderson County: 1 man 60 years, 1 woman 70 years, 2 women 80 years, 1 man 80 years, 1 woman 90 years
-Johnson County: 1 man 70 years old
-Kane County: 1 woman 60 years old
-Kendall County: 1 woman 70 years old
-Lake County: 1 man 70 years old, 1 man 80 years old
-LaSalle County: 2 women from the 90s
– Macoupin County: 1 male aged 60
– McHenry County: 2 men from the 80s
– Monroe County: 1 woman 70 years old
-Saline County: 1 woman 70 years old
-Stephenson County: 1 man 80 years old, 1 woman 90 years old
– Union County: 2 men 60 years old
-Will County: 1 woman 70 years old
– Winebago County: 1 male 60 years old, 1 male 80 years old, 1 woman 90 years old
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