As of Feb. 25, Illinois residents 16 years or older with underlying health conditions or disabilities can take the coronavirus vaccine into account, government JB Pritzker announced Wednesday.
This will include pregnant women and people with diabetes, heart disease, cancer or sickle cell disease, Pritzker said after visiting a new mass vaccination center in Quincy.
The expansion of Phase 1B of Illinois’ distribution plan will follow the CDC guidelines for vaccinating people with those and other conditions, the Democratic governor said.
For now, about 4 million of the state’s 12.7 million residents have been given the green light to sign up for shots – if they can locate an appointment to get one of the coveted doses that are still scarce.
Eligible so far are residents among health care workers, residents of nursing homes and workers, a few other “frontline essential” workers and all residents aged 65 or older. In the extended phase 1B, the age requirement is reduced to 16 for people with underlying conditions, although it is not clear how large the population is.
“Those younger than 65 and living with co-morbidities have an increased risk of serious complications or even death,” Pritzker said. “We do not have to waste any time protecting them.”
Other conditions being treated in the extended phase include people who have or have had chronic kidney disease, COPD, lung disease, an “immunocompromised condition” of a solid organ transplant and obesity, according to Pritzker’s office.
“Governor Pritzker’s decision to extend Phase 1B to include people with disabilities gives priority to people with disabilities within the vaccination distribution plan, and we thank and applaud the governor for his leadership,” said John Herring, executive director of the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent, said Life.
The governor noted that weekly vaccines from the federal government have increased about 30% since President Joe Biden took office, while a third vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is approaching federal approval.
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But doses were still difficult to qualify for Illinois residents. A total of 2.2 million doses were sent to the state in total and about 1.5 million penetrated their weapons.
Only 327,413 people both received the required doses, or about 2.6% of the Illinois population. The Illinois Department of Public Health aims to vaccinate 80% of the population to bring about herd immunity.
Officials said the 63rd dose was administered across the country on Tuesday, the fourth highest daily total ever, raising the country’s average of seven days to a high of 55,135 shots per day.
“I wish I could magically make enough vaccine appear so we could get all of our Illinoiss vaccinated at the moment, I really do,” Pritzker said. ‘It will happen in the coming months, but today we must all be patient because more vaccine is still being produced. And in the meantime, we will no doubt all wear our masks and follow the softenings so that more of our neighbors are healthy and alive when it is their turn to be vaccinated. ”
A total of 517 vaccination rooms have been set up nationwide, including 134 new ones in the past week.
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Infection rates have dropped significantly since the first doses were administered in Illinois two months ago.
Public health officials announced 2,825 newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases detected among 82,885 tests, keeping the state-positive positive percentage at 3.3% – as low as it has been since the summer.
Coronavirus hospitalizations are also at a third of the state’s highest levels, and 2,082 patients seized across the country as of Tuesday night.
But the virus claimed another 53 lives, including 23 from the Chicago area.
The daily toll has been around average for the state over the past week. The death toll has shrunk by more than half compared to a month ago.
Since March last year, nearly 1.2 million Illinoisans have been infected and at least 19,739 of them have died.