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To:
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Chemical Industry Council of Illinois (CICI) Members
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From:
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Mark Biel, Chief Executive Officer
[email protected] or 217/522-5805
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Re:
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – Governor Pritzker Announces More Details on Phase 1B Vaccination, Updated Sports Policy
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Governor Pritzker today announced more details on the state’s early stages of Phase 1B vaccinations that begin this Monday, January 25. All residents over the age of 65 and frontline essential workers can begin to receive the vaccine. Illinois will begin vaccinating eligible residents by appointment only.
As the state substantially completes Phase 1A, Illinois has surpassed its daily vaccination record multiple times, most recently vaccinating more than 44,000 people in a 24-hour period. The state has administered more than 60 percent of its vaccine allocation outside of Chicago and not including the federal Pharmacy Partnership Program, and substantially more once data lag in the reported administrations is accounted for.
Over 3.2 million Illinoisans are eligible for Phase 1B. Eligible residents will be able to receive a vaccine at one of the Illinois National Guard assisted sites, at a site operated by a local health department, or at a partner pharmacy. Walgreens is now online in limited number of sites statewide. CVS and Jewel-Osco will be coming online early next week and additional pharmacies such as Hy-Vee, Mariano’s, and Kroger will be joining later next week. Taken together, these pharmacy partners will provide hundreds of sites in every region of the state.
Again, at this time, these sites will be available by appointment only. As the federal supply of vaccines increases and Illinois receives more vaccines, the state will launch walk-in locations and expand sites to additional providers like doctor’s offices and urgent care clinics. More information about those locations will be released in the coming weeks.
In addition, the governor also provided an updated sports policy guidance for all youth and adult recreational sports. This guidance expands the level of play allowed for all sports to allow play at the intra-conference, region, or league levels.
While regions in the state continue to move toward Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan, the risk of a resurgence, particularly with new variants such as the U.K. variant remains serious. The state urges all Illinois residents to continue following guidance aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19, such as wearing a mask, reducing interactions outside the household, practicing social distancing, frequent hand washing, and receiving the COVID-19 vaccine when eligible.
The Illinois Department of Public Health will continue to closely monitor test positivity, ICU bed availability, and the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19. Should data show regions trending in the wrong direction, based on the established mitigation metrics, regions could once again find themselves in a higher tier with increased measures.
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