Illinois COVID Update: IL reports 4,191 new cases, 103 deaths; vaccine efforts ramp up
As Illinois COVID vaccination ramps up, 2nd appointments prove hard to find
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Illinois health officials reported 4,191 new COVID-19 cases and 103 deaths Thursday.
The total number of cases in Illinois now stands at 1,116,372, with a total of 19,067 deaths, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 100,119 specimens for a total of 15,733,562.
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The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from Jan. 21-27 is 5.5%.
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The test positivity rate is a metric the state began providing in late October. It is calculated by using the total number of positive tests over the total number of tests. This is the metric being used to by state health officials to make decisions about mitigations.
A total of 1,293,075 doses of vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago, with an additional 496,100 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care facilities, bringing the total number delivered in Illinois to 1,789,175.
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Thursday afternoon, Governor JB Pritzker visited a vaccination site at Morton East High School in Cicero. He announced that Illinois would be receiving $43 million from FEMA for vaccine distribution.
The Illinois National Guard is administering vaccines at that site, and Pritzker said he is confident the state is now on good track with more promised doses from the federal government and money from FEMA.
"The state of Illinois will be receiving $43 million additional to help us with the vaccinations," the governor said.
That money will help local health departments administer vaccines at some of their sites, like those at Morton East and the Lake County Fairgrounds. Only 1.4% of the state's population has received both doses of a vaccine.
in Chicago, health officials said they're receiving only about 35,000 vaccine doses a week, allowing them to administer only 5,000 doses a day, for vaccines that require two doses.
"The federal government is directing us to do first and second doses and to make sure everybody is getting the doses at the right period of time," Pritzker said.
Rather than vaccinating as many people as possible with the first dose, Gov. Pritzker said the state does keep vaccines in reserve for second doses.
Second dose appointments are even harder to find for some than their initial shots.
"I kid you not, I was on that phone for about nine hours, yes I was, and it's impossible. It's a mess. That's more stress," said Jocelyn Jones.
Jones and her husband are both over 65 with underlying health conditions. She said the next appointments she could find through Cook County's portal were in March.
"It's not going to do us any good if we can't get the second one, and it's nearly impossible to get it," she said.
Cook County Health CEO Israel Rocha said he will look into the situation Jones described, and added more vaccine coming to the county and more staffers added to locations should allow appointments to be made on-site after getting the first dose.
"We are expanding our smaller sites, we are adding more team members to accommodate that feature, and we hope ot have that available at all of the sites in the next few days," Rocha said.
Jones said she was eventually able to get appointments for her and her husband for their second COVID vaccine dose within the three week window, but she did not get them through Cook County.
IDPH reports that a total of 829,488 vaccine doses have been administered, including 131,284 at long-term facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered is 36,728.
The IDPH says that vaccine distribution numbers are reported in real-time and vaccine administration numbers lag by as much as 72 hours.
Walgreens is providing vaccines at 92 sites across the state and appointments can be made on their website while Jewel-Osco will begin vaccinating eligible residents Tuesday, with appointments available on their website.
Governor JB Pritzker said there are plans to launch walk-in locations once the supply of vaccine increases. He also announced the creation of a new portal, coronavirus.illinois.gov, to provide the latest information on vaccines.
As of Wednesday night, 2,802 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 567 patients were in the ICU and 292 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The deaths reported Thursday include:
- Adams County: 1 female 80s
- Boone County: 1 male 70s
- Clinton County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
- Coles County: 1 male 70s
- Cook County: 4 males 50s, 6 females 60s, 9 males 60s, 3 females 70s, 8 males 70s, 5 females 80s, 7 males 80s, 2 females 90s, 2 male 90s
- DeKalb County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
- DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 2 females 90s, 1 male 90s
- Fulton County: 1 male 60s
- Henderson County: 1 male 70s
- Henry County: 1 female 80s
- Kane County: 1 female 70s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
- Kankakee County: 1 male 90s
- Lake County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
- Lee County: 1 male 90s, 1 male 100+
- Madison County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s
- McHenry County: 1 male 80s
- McLean County: 1 female 90s
- Monroe County: 1 female 90s
- Montgomery County: 1 female 90s
- Perry County: 1 male 80s
- Pike County: 1 male 80s
- Sangamon County: 1 female 100+
- St. Clair County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s
- Stephenson County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s
- Warren County: 1 male 70s
- Will County: 1 female 40s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 90s
- Williamson County: 1 male 80s
- Winnebago County: 1 female 40s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
