|
|
To:
|
Chemical Industry Council of Illinois (CICI) Members
|
|
From:
|
Mark Biel, Chief Executive Officer
[email protected] or 217/522-5805
|
|
Re:
|
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update - Pritzker Announces Changes to Phase 4 Re-Opening Plan; CICI Joins Business, Healthcare Groups in Call to Wear Masks to Save Lives, Protect Jobs; 3M, MIT Developing a rapid COVID-19 Diagnostic Test; Hospitalization Rates Lowest Since State’s Peak from Late April; Update on COVID-19 Cases
|
Pritzker Announces Changes to Phase 4 Re-Opening Plan: Sincethe state has experienced an uptick in the number of positive cases, reaching over 1,100 new cases in the last 24 hours, Governor Pritzker announced today some changes to Phase 4 of the state’s re-opening plan. In particular, the state’s 4 regions have now been broken up into 11 regions (including the following counties) as follows:
1 - NORTH: Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, Winnebago
2 - NORTH-CENTRAL: Bureau, Fulton, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Kendall, Knox, La Salle, Livingston, Marshall, McDonough, McLean, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Tazewell, Warren, Woodford
3 - WEST-CENTRAL: Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Christian, Greene, Hancock, Jersey, Logan, Macoupin, Mason, Mason, Menard, Montgomery, Morgan, Pike, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott
4 - METRO EAST: Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair, Washington
5 - SOUTHERN: Alexander, Edwards, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Marion, Massac, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Saline, Union, Wabash, Wayne, White, Williamson
6 - EAST-CENTRAL: Champaign, Clark, Clay, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Iroquois, Jasper, Lawrence, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt, Richland, Shelby, Vermillion
7 - SOUTH SUBURBAN: Kankakee, Will
8 - WEST SUBURBAN: DuPage, Kane
9 - NORTH SUBURBAN: Lake, McHenry
10 - SUBURBAN COOK: Suburban Cook
11 - CHICAGO: City of Chicago
Governor Pritzker also announced that included in these changes are potential metrics to determine when the spread of the virus in a region requires additional mitigations such as a sustained increase in 7-day rolling average (7 out of 10 days) in the positivity rate and one of the following severity indicators:
- Sustained 7-day increase in hospital admissions for a COVID-19 like illness
- Reduction in hospital capacity threatening surge capabilities (ICU capacity or medical/surgical beds < 20%)
- OR three consecutive days averaging 8% positivity rate
Some mitigation strategies in higher risk settings, like indoor bars and restaurants, will be automatically applied in a region that meets resurgence criteria to prevent rapid spread of COVID-19.
The state’s overall positivity rate remains steady at 3.1% but may be higher in some of the state’s 11 other regions.
CICI Joins Business, Healthcare Groups in Call to Wear Masks to Save Lives, Protect Jobs: In light of Governor Pritzker’s announcement today to make changes to Phase 4 of the state’s re-opening plan, CICI has joined a number of business and industry groups to renew the call for citizens to wear face coverings while in public in order to slow the rising number of positive cases. Attached to this Update is the press release which went public today.
3M, MIT Developing a rapid COVID-19 Diagnostic Test: CICI member, 3M, and researchers at MIT are testing a new rapid test that detects the COVID-19 virus. Accelerated research is underway to learn if a simple-to-use, diagnostic device can produce highly accurate results within minutes and is feasible to mass manufacture. The test would detect viral antigens and deliver highly accurate results within minutes via a paper-based device. The test could be administered at the point-of-care and would not need to be sent to labs for testing.
The U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) selected the rapid COVID-19 test for accelerated development and commercialization support, after rigorous review by an expert panel. The test is in the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Tech (RADx Tech) program, an aggressively-paced COVID-19 diagnostics initiative from the NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
Hospitalization Rates Lowest Since State’s Peak from Late April: Today, IDPH is reporting that of the current 156,693 positive tests in Illinois, only 1,454 individuals, or 0.92% required some sort of hospital care. This is a reduction of 0.02% from 5 days ago, which continues a downward trend for the last couple months.
Of these hospitalizations, 324 patients were in the ICU and 130 patients were on ventilators. When the state’s COVID-19 peak was reached on April 28, over 5,000 patients were in the hospital with 1,290 patients being in the ICU. At that time, 10% of all then-positive cases were requiring hospital care. Again, IDPH’s webpage tracks positivity and hospitalization rates for the state’s current four regions.
Update on COVID-19 Cases: There are currently 156,693 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 985 new cases per day since reported 5 days ago on July 10. In total, 2,079,601 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average increase of 33,571 tests per day since July 10.
Unfortunately, since then,IDPH is reporting a total of 7,226 deaths, an average increase of 16 per day since July 10.
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.
|
