Governor Pritzker Announces Phase 1b Vaccination Guidelines:  While the Governor feels the state has made great progress in administering COVID-19 vaccines, he announced yesterday the state’s Phase 1b Vaccination guidelines which should begin shortly. (Please note that these are only the “guidelines” to implement Phase 1b and not the actual start of Phase 1b vaccinations.)

If you recall, under Illinois' vaccination plans, Phase 1b will include frontline essential workers and residents age 65 and over. The frontline essential workers designation includes many residents who carry a higher risk of COVID-19 exposure because of their work duties, often because they are unable to work from home, and/or they must work closely to others without being able to socially distance. This group includes first responders, education, food and agriculture, manufacturing, corrections workers and inmates, USPS workers, public transit workers, grocery store workers and staff at shelters and day cares.

Illinois has 1.3 million people who qualify as “frontline essential workers” and 1.9 million adults age 65 and over, totaling 3.2 million eligible Illinoisans.  We expect a lot of employees working at CICI manufacturing facilities would be covered under Phase 1b, with the rest covered under Phase 1c and Phase 2.  CICI is still waiting on the Governor to announce when the Phase 1b vaccination program will begin.

Some Regions May Move Out of Tier 3 Mitigations Starting Jan. 15: Also, yesterday, Governor Pritzker announced that any of the state’s 11 regions which have met the metrics for a reduction of mitigations will be able to move out of Tier 3 mitigations. In order for a region to move back to Tier 2 mitigations, a region must (1) experience less than 12 percent test positivity rate for three consecutive days, (2) a greater than 20 percent available ICU and hospital bed availability, and (3) declining COVID hospitalizations in 7 out of the last 10 days.

You can see what these Tier 2 mitigations are under the state’s revamped Phase 4 plan.  Tier 2 mitigations, however, still do not allow indoor bar or restaurant service and have limited gathering capacities.

Tracker with State Vaccine Updates & COVID-19 Orders:  The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has again updated its comprehensive COVID-19 Tracker with a separate chart illustrating state vaccine plans where you can find the updated vaccination plans for every state.  The other document details updated state specific orders and mitigation measures as well as executive orders and legislation relating to business liability.  The ACC also announced that this tracker will now only be updated and sent out once a week.

Update on COVID-19 Cases: IDPH is reporting 999,288 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 5,983 new positive tests per day since reported here 6 days ago on December 31.  In total, 13,698,428 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average increase of 70,164 tests per day since December 31. 

The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions is at 8.4% for the last 6 days. You can see where the various regions are at in terms of their positivity rates, hospitalizations, and other metrics at this link. 

Unfortunately, IDPH is reporting a total of 17,096 deaths, an average increase of 101 per day since December 31.

You can also check where these cases are occurring at the State of Illinois COVID-19 website which also contains more information on this outbreak.

Also, IDPH has a case breakdown of the number of positive cases in Chicago and each county relative to the number of fatalities.  The IDPH website also now includes a breakdown of the cases under each zip code in the state.

For information on other states and countries, John Hopkins University has developed this website that provides invaluable resources at a one-stop location detailing testing and tracing trends, timelines of COVID-19 policies, and interactive maps.

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