Illinois COVID Update Today: IL reports 2,944 new cases, 49 deaths as vaccination Phase 1B begins

Walgreens, Jewel providing COVID-19 vaccines across IL

ByJessica D'Onofrio and ABC 7 Chicago Digital Team WLS logo
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
3.2M in Illinois now eligible for COVID vaccine

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Illinois health officials reported 2,944 new COVID-19 cases and 49 deaths Monday as the state entered Phase 1B of the vaccination plan.

With Illinois now in Phase 1B, people over 65 and many essential workers are now eligible to get the vaccine. That includes approximately an additional 3.2 million people.

The Illinois National Guard will be assisting with vaccinations at Cook County Health Centers in half a dozen suburbs. There are more deployments planned throughout the state.

Officials said that beginning Monday, those guard-supported sites will take 1B appointments as will pharmacies at hundreds of Walgreens, CVS and Jewel locations.

Illinois moves to phase 1B of vaccine rollout Monday.

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 supple of vaccine increases.

Dr. Robert Citronberg with Advocate Aurora Health answers COVID-19 questions.

On Monday, Governor Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle toured the Tinley Park Convention Center, which is preparing to become a mass vaccination site.

Governor Pritzker announced the creation of a new portal, coronavirus.illinois.gov, to provide the latest information on vaccines.

"Today, as we launch the newest phase of our Vaccine Administration Plan for frontline essential workers and those 65 and over, I'm proud to announce our statewide vaccination site locator, searchable by zip code and city, at coronavirus.illinois.gov," said Governor JB Pritzker. "This site will serve as a hub of all vaccine-related information, directing residents to the appointment booking homepages of our 97 local health departments and our pharmacy partners, which will total hundreds of locations statewide. That also includes information on our first Illinois National Guard mass vaccination site, opening tomorrow at Tinley Park Convention Center, and will be updated as more state-run sites and hundreds of additional local options come online. As federal supply is currently limited and every state in the nation is facing a shortage, I urge all eligible Illinoisans to check back regularly for available appointments - and in the meantime, mask up, keep our distance, wash our hands, and remember we'll stay healthy and safe if we look out for each other."

Illinois is now reporting eight more cases of the new, potentially more contagious COVID-19 variant first identified in the United Kingdom. Before now, there was just one case confirmed here. All nine of these cases are within Cook County.

The total number of cases in Illinois now stands at 1,104,763, with a total of 18,798 deaths, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 74,202 specimens for a total of 15,484,034.

As of Sunday night, 2,962 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 601 patients were in the ICU and 302 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

RELATED: Illinois COVID vaccine map shows how many residents vaccinated by county

The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from Jan. 18-24 is 5.8%.

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.

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A total of 1,112,725 doses of vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago, with an additional 550,050 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care facilities, bringing the total number delivered in Illinois to 1,662,775.

RELATED: Illinois coronavirus testing: Where to get tested for COVID-19 in Illinois, Chicago area

IDPH reports that a total of 692,763 vaccine doses, including 110,403 at long-term facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered is 28,171.

The IDPH says that vaccine distribution numbers are reported in real-time and vaccine administration numbers lag by as much as 72 hours.

The deaths reported Monday include:

- Boone County: 1 male 60s

- Coles County: 1 male 70s

- Cook County: 1 male 40s, 2 males 50s, 3 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 2 females 70s, 2 females 80s, 2 males 80s, 1 female 90s, 3 males 90s

- DeKalb County: 1 female 80s

- DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 90s

- Fulton County: 1 male 80s

- Henry County: 1 male 90s

- Kane County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s

- Lake County: 2 males 50s, 1 female 60s

- Macoupin County: 1 female 80s

- Madison County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s

- McHenry County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 70s

- McLean County: 1 female 70s

- Peoria County: 1 male 60s

- Randolph County: 1 male 70s

- Sangamon County: 1 male 60s

- St. Clair County: 1 female 80s

- Tazewell County: 1 female 90s

- Will County: 1 male 80s

- Winnebago County: 1 male 90s

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