CDC Guidance for Fully Vaccinated People: The CDC this week released guidance on their first set of public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people. This guidance will be updated and expanded based on the level of community spread of COVID-19, the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated, and the rapidly evolving science on COVID-19 vaccines.

For the purposes of this guidance, people are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 2 weeks after they have received the second dose in a 2-dose series for the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or 2 weeks after they have received a single-dose vaccine from J&J. 

The following recommendations apply to non-healthcare settings for fully vaccinated people:

• Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
• Visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
• Refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure if asymptomatic

For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:

• Take precautions in public like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing
• Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
• Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households
• Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings
• Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms
• Follow guidance issued by individual employers
• Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations

United Center Mass Vaccination Site Now Only for Some Chicago Residents: As you may recall from last week’s Update, the United Center in Chicago has been set up as a mass vaccination site to be open to all residents of the state, but with priority for seniors and medically underserved communities in accordance with Phase 1B protocols. 

Yesterday, however, officials at the United Center announced that eligibility for the new appointments would be narrowed to only eligible Phase 1B Chicago residents.  Apparently, the United Center became overwhelmed with appointments as more than 750 appointments were booked per minute in the first day of online registration.  Officials then began triaging appointments for residents who live in high COVID Community Vulnerability Index ZIP codes as well as ZIP codes with low vaccination rates, allowing anyone from these ZIP codes to register.  These ZIP codes are 60612, 60608, 60652, 60620, 60619 and 60649.

It's anticipated that, depending upon vaccine supplies, that appointments from other areas of Chicago and eventually eligible residents outside of Chicago will be able to book appointments in the near future.

Update on Phase 1B Vaccinations: A total of 4,323,145 vaccine doses have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago. In addition, approximately 414,900 doses total have been allocated to the federal government’s Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities. This brings the total Illinois doses to 4,738,045. A total of 3,567,927 vaccines have been administered in Illinois, including 349,983 for long-term care facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 95,369 doses. Yesterday, 104,777 doses were administered in Illinois.

Also, as a reminder, the state has updated its COVID-19 website containing current locations and other pertinent information on one webpage.

ACC Tracker with State Vaccine Updates & COVID-19 Orders:  The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has again updated its comprehensive COVID-19 Tracker (attached to this Update) with separate charts illustrating state vaccine plans, including documents detailing updated state specific orders and mitigation measures as well as executive orders and legislation relating to business liability. 

Canada COVID-19 Information: For those members who would like to receive information about vaccination protocols and COVID-19 restrictions in Canada, please reach out to Mark Biel at [email protected] to be added to the distribution list. Our friends at the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada have been kind enough to share their COVID-19 information with us.

Update on COVID-19 Cases: IDPH is reporting 1,202,709 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 1,598 new positive tests per day since reported here 7 days ago on March 3.  In total, 18,804,759 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average increase of 70,033 tests per day since March 3. 

The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions is at 2.28% for the last 7 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 20,810 deaths, an average increase of 26 per day since March 3.

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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