The Illinois Department of Public Health reported on Thursday that the first cases of COVID variant B.1.351 were confirmed in the state, at a Rock Island resident. The state is currently reporting 22 cases of UK variant B 1.1.7.
Doctors say it is very likely that the South African variant is already spreading across the state.
“What is worrying is that some of these variants appear, as I said, to be appearing more often, suggesting that there is something about them that gives them an edge over other versions of COVID,” said Dr. Mary Hayden, head of the Division Rush University Medical Center Infectious Disease
Both variants appear to spread more quickly, health officials said, and could lead to more cases of the virus or even another outbreak.
“The South African variant is a little more problematic. It lessens the ability of vaccines to induce the antibodies that would suppress it. But it does not eliminate it completely,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Doctors said vaccine makers are beginning to adjust doses to keep up with the mutations. Still, they reminded the public of the urgent need to wear a face mask, maintain social distance, limit face-to-face meetings of all sizes and get vaccinated when it’s your turn.
In the meantime, Illinois health officials reported 2,825 new cases of COVID-19 and 102 deaths on Thursday.
The total number of cases in Illinois is now 1,155,833, with a total of 19,841 deaths since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last 24 hours, laboratories reported 96,525 samples for a total of 16,918,910.
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As of Wednesday night, 1,954 patients in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of these, 448 patients were in the ICU and 227 patients with COVID-19 were on 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 the vaccine were delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago, with an additional 456,100 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care facilities, bringing the total number delivered to Illinois to 2,385,950 .
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IDPH says vaccine delivery numbers are reported in real time and vaccine delivery numbers are delayed by up to 72 hours.
IDPH reports that a total of 1,549,108 doses of vaccine have been administered, including 226,974 in long-term care facilities. The seven-day moving average of vaccines administered is 56,094.
Chicago and area counties will not expand 1B eligibility
While the state may be expanding who is eligible to be vaccinated in group 1B, the city of Chicago and none of the collar counties will follow suit.
“We administered the vaccine as quickly as the delivery allowed,” said Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle. “And now we are in the same situation as LA County, where we will temporarily close some locations because we have exhausted our current vaccine stock. While other parts of the state may be ready to move on to the next phase, Chicago and Cook County are not.”
“Expanding this space would really result in our healthcare providers, our elderly people, our essential frontline workers facing even greater difficulty in getting vaccinated, and we think our audience is already frustrated enough,” said Mark Pfister, executive director of the Lake County Department of Health and Community Health Center.
“We do not have an adequate supply with the current phase 1b eligibility. It will now be much more difficult to meet demand without a significant increase in vaccine availability,” said Will County Health Department Executive Director Sue Olenek.
“The DuPage County Department of Health is still working to understand the governor’s announcement. The Illinois Department of Public Health said it will update its vaccination plan with additional details this weekend. We are currently focused on vaccinating 270,000 people who are already in Phase 1b, in addition to health professionals in 1st who have not yet had the opportunity to be vaccinated, “said the DuPage County Health Department in a statement.
“We have not made any determination at this time,” said the Kane County Health Department in a statement.
Wednesday governor JB Pritzker and IDPH expanded group 1B to those over 16 with underlying comorbidities and conditions defined by the CDC. In addition, Illinois will also prioritize individuals with disabilities, all beginning February 25, even with IDPH director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, acknowledged that supply remains a problem.
The governor, however, insisted that he remains optimistic that the offer will increase in the coming weeks, especially with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine scheduled to be approved by the end of the month.
“It is a single dose vaccine,” said Pritzker. “It will be a major development in the vaccine world and 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
– Cardiac condition
– Immunocompromised status of a solid organ transplant
-Obesity
-Pregnancy
-Lung disease
-Sickle cell anemia
In a statement, the governor’s spokesman said that vaccine supply has already started 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 not among those included in group 1B are electricians, who were considered essential workers at the beginning of the pandemic and who worked in hospitals, airports, aerodromes, water treatment plants and even helped build an improvised hospital in McCormick.
“We haven’t lost a beat and we’ve been working every day,” said Donn Finne, IBEW Local 134. “We received many COVID-19 cases among our members and we had deaths in our association. “
Finn said Local 134 had several conversations with the governor’s office and thought they were making progress on a conference call on Wednesday, but that was not the case.
“You are telling me that 12,500 electricians should not be included in this, as we are doing our job from day one, I do not believe that,” he said.
Pritzker said he understands their frustration, but supply remains a major problem, although he said that Illinois has administered the fifth majority of vaccines across the country.
“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,” said Pritzker.
Local 134 said it should include its members, a union that helped the governor get elected.
Gov. Pritzker visits Elgin vaccine website
Pritzker gave an update on vaccination efforts at the Elgin Mental Health Center in Elgin on Thursday morning.
The Human Services Department’s vaccination site in Elgin welcomes many patients and has dozens of staff. Thursday morning, 50 patients and staff members received their second doses of the COVID 19 vaccine.
The expansion could almost double the number of people currently eligible for the vaccine at a time of low supply, but the governor expressed optimism that federal government deliveries will increase significantly in the coming weeks.
“My government will work with all local public health departments to fit these high-risk individuals into their community vaccination plans in the coming weeks,” said Pritzker.
Deaths reported on Thursday include:
– Clay County: 1 80 year old woman
– Clinton County: 1 woman from the 80s
– Coles County: 1 male, 60 years old
– 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 years, 7 men 70 years, 7 women 80 years, 7 men 80 years, 4 women 90 years, 2 men 90
– DeKalb County: 1 woman from the 90s
– DuPage County: 1 woman 40 years old, 3 men 70 years old, 1 woman 80 years old, 1 man 90 years old
– Greene County: 1 woman 50 years old
– Grundy County: 1 male, 60 years old
– Jefferson County: 1 man from the 80s
– Kane County: 1 male 60 years old, 1 male 70 years old, 1 woman 90 years old
– Knox County: 1 woman from the 80s
– Lake County: 1 man 50 years old
– Lawrence County: 1 60 year old man
– Livingston County: 1 man from the 80s
– Logan County: 1 woman from the 90s
– Marion County: 1 70 year old man
– McLean County: 1 male, 60 years old
– Monroe County: 1 man 70 years old, 1 woman 90 years old
– County of Moultrie: 1 man aged 70
– Randolph County: 1 70 year old man
– Sangamon County: 1 woman 70 years old
– St. Clair County: 1 woman 50 years old, 1 woman 90 years old
– Stephenson County: 1 man from the 80s
– Tazewell County: 1 woman 40 years old, 1 woman 50 years old, 1 man 70 years old, 1 woman 90 years old
– Vermilion County: 1 70 year old man
– Washington County: 1 woman from the 90s
– Whiteside County: 1 male 60 years old, 1 male 90 years old
– Will County: 1 man aged 50, 1 man aged 60, 3 men aged 70, 1 woman aged 80, 2 women aged 90
– Winnebago County: 1 woman from the 90s
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