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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 – States’ Vaccine Protocols & Updated ACC Tracker; Update on COVID-19 Cases
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States’ Vaccine Protocols & Updated ACC Tracker: As expected, the FDA yesterday granted an Emergency Use Authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Another vaccine created by Moderna may get similar authorization in a matter of days. According to media reports, the first shipments should start arriving next week.
As the country is preparing for the vaccine’s prioritization and distribution, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has updated their COVID-19 Tracker to illustrate the various state plans for prioritization. This Tracker is attached to today’s Update. Concerning critical infrastructure workers, most states, including Illinois, fall into a “Phase 2 prioritization”.
As for Illinois’ vaccine plan, front-line health care workers and nursing home residents are scheduled to be offered the vaccine first, followed by “essential workers”, people over 65, and those with higher risk of COVID-19-related medical complications. For now, it’s likely that only people 18 and older will be offered the vaccine because it hasn’t been tested on children yet. Public health officials claim it will take months to roll out the vaccine to priority groups and even longer for the general public because of limited supplies.
Update on COVID-19 Cases: IDPH is reporting 832,951 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 10,260 new positive tests per day since reported here 2 days ago on December 9. In total, 11,586,296 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average increase of 109,475 tests per day since December 9.
The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions is at 9.4% for the last 7 days, and 9.3% in the last 2 days. 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 14,050 deaths, an average increase of 192 per day since December 9.
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, and interactive maps.
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