COVID-19 Positivity Rates Continue to Rise:  The state is experiencing its highest positivity rate since late January.  While the average positivity rate for all 11 regions in the state is just over 4%, some regions of the state are double that, with Peoria and Stark Counties exceeding 12%.  

Currently, Region 1 (Peoria/Bloomington), Region 2 (Rockford/North Central IL) and Region 8 (DuPage & Kane County) are either close to or exceed an 8% positivity rate.  If the rate gets above 8% and stays there for longer than 3 days, mitigation measures will be put in place such as further limiting the number of patrons at bars and restaurants.

Pause on J&J Vaccine:  As many of you are likely aware, the CDC and FDA have paused the use of the J&J vaccine over “an abundance of caution” from 6 rare cases of blood clots, none of which occurred in Illinois.  In the meantime, the CDC and the FDA are carefully reviewing these cases and their significance.  Over 6 million J&J vaccine doses have been administered across the country so far.  For Illinois, the majority of the vaccines being administered are from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNtech.  According to press reports, 290,000 J&J vaccines were administered here in Illinois, including one to Governor Pritzker over 20 days ago.    

Update on Vaccinations - 16 & Older Now Eligible: Beginning this week, all residents of the state 16 and older are eligible to receive vaccination shots.  Opening tomorrow, a former Target store location in Matteson will be the 12th mass vaccination site located in Cook and the collar counties and the state’s 21st mass vaccination site open to all eligible Illinois residents. The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses for Illinois is 9,386,135.  A total of 7,482,650 vaccines have been administered in the state.  The average daily doses of vaccines administered is 132,810 doses.  Yesterday, 138,538 doses were administered in the state.

Also, as a reminder, IDPH is now posting the weekly number of COVID-19 vaccine doses allocated from the federal government. Weekly allocations will be broken out into the number of doses allotted for long-term care, second doses, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Safety Net Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, Illinois National Guard Vaccine Sites, Illinois Retail Pharmacy, Minority Health and Mobile Teams, Illinois Department of Corrections, dialysis centers, and local health departments. Both first dose and second dose allocation will be broken out by local health department. The City of Chicago receives its own allocation of vaccine and therefore is not included on the IDPH website. These data include vaccine allocated to the state and do not include vaccine that is part of the federal supply, which is directly distributed by the federal government. Data can be found at http://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/vaccineallocations

Additionally, 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.  In addition, here is Canada's COVID-19 immunization plan.  

Update on COVID-19 Cases: IDPH is reporting 1,288,934 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 3,353 new positive tests per day since reported here 7 days ago on April 7.  In total, 21,371,760 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average increase of 79,044 tests per day since April 7. 

The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions is at 4.2% for the last 7 days, which is a slight increase from last week, but more than 2 percentage point higher since March 13 when the state achieved its lowest rate yet since the pandemic began.  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 21,570 deaths, an average increase of 38 per day since April 14.

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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