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 – Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – 15,078 Confirmed Cases, 462 Deaths; Temporary Exemptions for Hazardous Material Endorsement (HME); 3M Announces 166.5 Million More Respirators
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The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is reporting a total of 462 deaths, 82 more than yesterday, which is now the state’s single largest increase since the beginning of the pandemic. There are currently 15,078 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, which is an increase of 1,529 new cases since yesterday.Of those people tested, 20% of the results are positive for COVID-19.
In total, 75,066 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, which is only an increase of 6,334 from yesterday. Health experts believe the number of tests will need to increase to 10,000 a day in order to develop a more precise mathematical model to evaluate how well current control efforts are working. It doesn’t appear that the state will reach that mark this week. In an effort to reach this goal, the state has been partnering with state and commercial laboratories to increase the volume of tests processed per day.
You can 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. In addition, Western Illinois University has an put together this Map of COVID-19 Cases in Illinois & Surrounding States which gives you picture of where COVID-19 cases are occurring in relation to areas surrounding Illinois.
In addition, Worldometer has a site with pertinent statistics on a state by state breakdown and comparison. Also, the City of Chicago has a good categorization of the cases within the city.
Temporary Exemptions for Hazardous Material Endorsement (HME): The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is granting a temporary exemption from requirements in 49 CFR part 1572 regarding expiration of TSA security threat assessments (STAs) for Hazardous Material Endorsement (HME). For the duration of this exemption, a state may grant an extension of up to 180 days for an HME that expired or would otherwise expire between March 1, 2020 and the end date of this exemption, even if the individual was unable to initiate or complete the required STA before the expiration date. If the state grants an extension, the individual with an expired HME must initiate the process of renewing the STA for an HME no later than 60 days before the end of the state-granted extension. TSA may extend this exemption at a future date depending on the status of the COVID-19 crisis. More information on this can be found here: HME Exemption.
3M Announces 166.5 Million More Respirators: Attached to this Update is a press release from 3M announcing a plan to import 166.5 million respirators over the next three months to support healthcare workers in the United States. These imports will supplement the 35 million N95 respirators 3M is currently producing every month in the country.
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