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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 – US Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on OSHA’s ETS; Update on Vaccinations; Update on COVID-19 Cases
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US Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on OSHA’s ETS: Today, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) dealing with vaccine and mask mandates for large employers and for health care workers. Until the US Supreme Court issues a ruling, lower court rulings will remain in effect allowing enforcement of the employer mandate issued by the OSHA, and partial enforcement of the health care worker requirement.
As you are aware, OSHA ETS, which was issued November 5, requires businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure that their workforces are fully vaccinated. Workers who aren't vaccinated must be required to wear masks and show negative COVID test results at least once a week.
OSHA has also announced it wouldn't take any enforcement steps before January 10 and wouldn't issue citations for failing to comply with the testing requirements before February 9 as long as employers are acting in good faith to put the rules into effect.
A separate federal rule requiring vaccinations for health care workers who treat Medicare and Medicaid patients is in effect in half the country. Two federal appeals courts blocked its enforcement in a total of 24 states; it remains in effect in the 26 others. The Supreme Court left that in place.
In addition, the vaccination requirement for federal contractors is on hold nationwide, being blocked by an order from a federal judge in Georgia.
CICI will keep the membership abreast of when the Supreme Court makes a decision, but don’t expect it anytime soon. According to various press reports issues today, the majority of the court (mostly conservative judges) appeared skeptical that OSHA has the legal power to mandate that the nation’s large employers require workers to be vaccinated or to undergo frequent testing. A federal workplace safety law, they indicated during a two-hour argument, did not provide legal authority for the sweeping emergency measure.
Update on Vaccinations: A total of 19,535,937 vaccines have been administered to Illinois residents. The average number of vaccines administered daily is 42,098. According to the state’s vaccine administration data, here’s how the rest of the state’s population by age groups ranks in terms of vaccinations:
5 years of age and older – 69% fully vaccinated; 78% one dose administered
12 years of age and older – 73% fully vaccinated; 82% one dose administered
18 years of age and older – 75% fully vaccinated; 84% one dose administered
65 years of age and older – 87% fully vaccinated; 95% one dose administered
Of Illinois’ total population, 73% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 64% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated, and 40% boosted according to data from the CDC. The state has also updated its COVID-19 website containing current locations and other pertinent information on one webpage.
Update on COVID-19 Cases: IDPH is now reporting 2,382,437 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois since the pandemic began, which is an average increase of 39,757 positive tests per day since last reported here 3 days ago on January 4. In total, 45,992,122 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average of 228,903 per day since January 4.
The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions since January 4 is at 17.3%, which is an increase of almost 4% in the last 3 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 28,361 deaths since the pandemic began, an average increase of 94 per day since January 4.
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, vaccinations, and interactive maps.
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