Illinois Coronavirus: More Residents with Underlying Diseases Vaccinated February 25

Starting February 25, Illinois residents over the age of 16 with underlying health or disability are eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine, Governor JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday.

After visiting Quincy’s new mass vaccination site, Pritzker said it would include pregnant women and people with diabetes, heart disease, cancer and sickle cell disease.

The expansion of Phase 1B of the Illinois distribution program will follow the CDC guidelines for immunizing people under these and other conditions, the Democratic Governor said.

So far, about 4 million of the state’s 12.7 million inhabitants have been given a green light to sign up for shots — they get one of the coveted doses they’re missing. If you can track the promise for.

To date, eligible residents include healthcare professionals, nursing home residents and workers, other “frontline essential” workers, and all residents aged 65 and over. In extended Phase 1B, the age requirement for people with underlying conditions is reduced to 16 years, but it is not clear how large their population is.

“People under the age of 65 with comorbidities are at increased risk of serious complications and death,” Pritzker said. “We don’t have to waste time protecting them.”

According to Pritzker’s office, other symptoms involved in the expansion phase include or have suffered from chronic kidney disease, COPD, lung disease, “immunodeficiency” due to solid organ transplantation, and obesity. Includes people.

John Herring, Secretary-General of the Illinois Independence Center Network, said: life.

The Governor said weekly vaccine shipments from the federal government have increased by about 30% since President Joe Biden took office, and the third vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is approaching federal approval. I said there is.

Illinois Live Stream

However, it was still difficult for qualified Illinois to obtain doses. A total of about 2.2 million doses were shipped to the state, and about 1.5 million were armed.

Only 327,413 people received both required doses, or about 2.6% of the Illinois population. The Illinois Public Health Service aims to vaccinate 80% of the population to achieve herd immunity.

Nearly 63,000 doses were administered across the state on Tuesday, officials said, raising the state’s seven-day rolling average to a maximum of 55,135 shots per day, the fourth highest daily total ever. It was.

“I want to magically bring out enough vaccines so that all Illinois can be vaccinated right now,” Pritzker said. “It will happen in the coming months, but as more vaccines are still in production, we all have to exercise patience today. And in the meantime, definitely, we all mask Wear and follow mitigation measures, so more neighbors are healthy and alive when it’s time to get vaccinated. “

A total of 517 vaccination sites have been set up throughout the state, including 134 new vaccination sites last week.

Is the graph not displayed correctly? click here.

The infection rate has dropped significantly since the first dose was given in Illinois two months ago.

Public health officials published 2,825 newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases with 82,885 tests, maintaining the state’s average positive rate at 3.3%. This is as low as the decline since summer.

Hospitalization for coronavirus is also one-third of the state’s peak levels, with 2,082 patients occupying beds throughout the state as of Tuesday night.

However, the virus killed 53 people, including 23 from the Chicago area.

Its daily tolls are about average for the state last week. The case fatality rate has decreased by more than half compared to a month ago.

Since March last year, approximately 1.2 million Illinois have been infected, of which at least 19,739 have died.