Illinois’ COVID-19 Positivity Rate Continues to Decrease, But So Do Vaccination Rates: The state’s overall COVID-19 positivity rates continue to lessen.  The average positivity rate for all 11 regions in the state is now at 3.4%, where earlier in the month the positivity rate stood at 4.5%.  Further, the positivity rate for the state's counties are also decreasing, with only Peoria (11%) and Winnebago (8.4%) exceeding an 8% positivity rate. 

However, a concerning trend may be happening with the state’s vaccination rates.  While 30% of the state’s population has now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the daily rate of vaccine doses being administered have dropped by 21% in the last 2 weeks.  If this trend continues, it may be a long journey to achieve the 70% fully vaccination threshold for the Bridge to Phase 5 plan for reopening.  Once 70% of residents 65 and older have been vaccinated and barring any reversals in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths for a 28-day monitoring period, the Bridge to Phase 5 will begin with increased capacity limits in both indoor and outdoor settings. Once 50% of residents 16 and older have been vaccinated and stable or declining COVID-19 metrics are recorded during a 28-day monitoring period, Phase 5 will be implemented, removing capacity limits altogether. All regions of the state will move through these next phases together based on statewide metrics.   

Update on Vaccinations: The total number of COVID-19 vaccines for the state is 11,322,205.  A total of 9,048,300 vaccines have been administered. The average number of vaccines administered daily is 100,823 doses. As of yesterday, 106,173 doses were administered in Illinois.

Also, as a reminder, IDPH is now posting the weekly number of COVID-19 vaccine doses allocated from the federal government. Weekly allocations will be broken out into the number of doses allotted for long-term care, second doses, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Safety Net Hospitals, Critical Access Hospitals, Illinois National Guard Vaccine Sites, Illinois Retail Pharmacy, Minority Health and Mobile Teams, Illinois Department of Corrections, dialysis centers, and local health departments. Both first dose and second dose allocation will be broken out by local health department. The City of Chicago receives its own allocation of vaccine and therefore is not included on the IDPH website. These data include vaccine allocated to the state and do not include vaccine that is part of the federal supply, which is directly distributed by the federal government. Data can be found at http://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/vaccineallocations

Additionally, the state has updated its COVID-19 website containing current locations and other pertinent information on one webpage.

CDC Issues New guidance for Fully Vaccinated Individuals: Yesterday, the CDC issued new guidance for full vaccinated individuals.  People are considered fully vaccinated 2 weeks after they have either received their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or 2 weeks after receiving the one-shot J&J vaccine.  According to this new guidance, fully vaccinated people can:

• Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
• Visit with unvaccinated people (including children) from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
• Participate in outdoor activities and recreation without a mask, except in certain crowded settings and venues
• Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel
• Refrain from testing before leaving the United States for international travel (unless required by the destination) and refrain from self-quarantine after arriving back in the United States
• Refrain from testing following a known exposure, if asymptomatic, with some exceptions for specific settings
• Refrain from quarantine following a known exposure if asymptomatic
• Refrain from routine screening testing if asymptomatic and feasible

ACC Tracker with State Vaccine Updates & COVID-19 Orders:  The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has again updated its comprehensive COVID-19 Tracker (attached to this Update) with separate charts illustrating state vaccine plans, including documents detailing updated state specific orders and mitigation measures as well as executive orders and legislation relating to business liability. 

Canada COVID-19 Information: For those members who would like to receive information about vaccination protocols and COVID-19 restrictions in Canada, please reach out to Mark Biel at [email protected] to be added to the distribution list. Our friends at the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada have been kind enough to share their COVID-19 information with us.  In addition, here is Canada's COVID-19 immunization plan.  

Update on COVID-19 Cases: IDPH is reporting 1,328,454 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 2,700 new positive tests per day since reported here 7 days ago on April 21.  In total, 22,469,213 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average increase of 78,407 tests per day since April 21. 

The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions is at 3.4% for the last 7 days, which is a slight decrease of 0.4% from last week.  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 21,891 deaths, an average increase of 24 per day since April 21.

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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