To:
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Chemical Industry Council of Illinois (CICI) Members
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From:
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Mark Biel, Chief Executive Officer [email protected] or 217/522-5805
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Re:
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – Nationwide Injunction of Federal Contractor Vaccine Requirement; Pritzker, Lightfoot Not Considering Private Sector Vaccine Mandate; Illinois COVID Cases, Hospitalizations Surge; Update on Vaccinations; Update on COVID-19 Cases
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Nationwide Injunction of Federal Contractor Vaccine Requirement: Earlier this week, a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Georgia issued a nationwide injunction covering the vaccine mandate for federal contractors issued in September. This order takes last week’s ruling from the Eastern District of Kentucky, which was limited to three states, a significant step further as it blocks enforcement of the vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors for the entire country. CICI will keep the membership updated as to any further developments with this order.
CICI would like to thank our associate member Jenner & Block for bringing this to our attention.
Pritzker, Lightfoot Not Considering Private Sector Vaccine Mandate: Earlier this week, both Governor Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot publicly stated that their administrations are not looking to enact a private sector vaccine mandate similar to what New York City Mayor has mandated that take effect later this month. The state’s mask mandate, which has been in place since the summer, will remain until the state and city’s positivity and hospitalization rates improve (see Below).
Illinois COVID Cases, Hospitalizations Surge: As of today, all 102 counties in the state are experiencing “high transmission” levels of COVID-19, while many are also experiencing dramatic growth in other metrics designed to illustrate how rapidly the virus is spreading. The CDC considers a county to have a “high transmission” rate if 100 or more residents per 100,000 individuals have contracted the virus in a given week. Unfortunately, all counties in the state have hit that threshold by a wide margin. Cook County, which has the lowest rate in the state so far at 4.1%, is close to 300 cases per 100,000. In fact, no state is currently lower than 208 cases per 100,000.
Just in the last week, positivity cases have risen 17%, deaths are up 46%, hospitalizations have gone up 26%, with 24% being in the ICU and 35% being on ventilators.
Update on Vaccinations: A total of 18,007,906 vaccines have been administered to Illinois residents. The average number of vaccines administered daily is 72,775. According to the state’s vaccine administration data, here’s how the rest of the state’s population by age groups ranks in terms of vaccinations:
5 years of age and older – 66% fully vaccinated; 75% one dose administered 12 years of age and older – 72% fully vaccinated; 80% one dose administered 18 years of age and older – 74% fully vaccinated; 81% one dose administered 65 years of age and older – 87% fully vaccinated; 95% one dose administered
Approximately 41% of Illinois’ eligible adults have also received a booster shot. Additionally, the state has updated its COVID-19 website containing current locations and other pertinent information on one webpage.
Update on COVID-19 Cases: The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is reporting 1,884,744 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois since the pandemic began, which is an average increase of 7,781 positive tests per day since last reported here 23 days ago on November 17. In total, 40,810,633 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average of 142,300 per day since November 17.
The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions is at 5.46%, which is an increase of 2.86 percentage points since November 17. You can see where the various regions are at in terms of their positivity rates, hospitalizations, and other metrics at this link.
Unfortunately, IDPH is reporting a total of 26,801 deaths since the pandemic began, an average increase of 28 per day since November 17.
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, vaccinations, and interactive maps.
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