* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,740 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 42 additional deaths.
- Bureau County: 1 male 50s
- Champaign County: 1 male 80s
- Cook County: 2 males 50s, 2 males 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 female 80s, 3 males 80s
- DuPage County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s
- Kane County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 60s
- Lake County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 90s
- LaSalle County: 1 female 80s
- Macon County: 1 male 80s
- Madison County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s
- McLean County: 1 male 70s
- Monroe County; 1 male 80s
- Morgan County: 1 female 70s
- Ogle County: 1 male 80s
- Peoria County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s
- Sangamon County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s
- Stephenson County: 1 female 100+
- Will County: 1 female 30s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 2 males 60s, 1 male 70s
- Winnebago County: 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,193,260 cases, including 20,668 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 73,990 specimens for a total of 18,389,512. As of last night, 1,200 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 260 patients were in the ICU and 128 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from February 25–March 3, 2021 is 2.4%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from February 25–March 3, 2021 is 2.9%.
A total of doses of 3,563,775 vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago. In addition, approximately 443,700 doses total have been allocated to the federal government’s Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities. This brings the total Illinois doses to 4,007,475. A total of 2,993,543 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight, including 330,328 for long-term care facilities. The 7-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 78,942 doses. Yesterday, 93,302 doses were administered in Illinois.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
…Adding… As a commenter rightly points out, these are the lowest hospitalization and ICU numbers since IDPH started keeping track in mid-April.
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Mercy Hospital may stay open after all
Thursday, Mar 4, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WBEZ…
Historic Mercy Hospital in Bronzeville, which is slated to close by May 31, is under a non-binding agreement to be sold.
That’s according to an email Mercy CEO Carol Schneider wrote to employees today and obtained by WBEZ.
Mercy’s owner, national Catholic hospital group Trinity Health, plans to sell Mercy on the Near South Side to Insight Chicago, a non-profit affiliated with a Flint, Mich.-based biomedical technology company.
“Insight Chicago will operate Mercy Hospital as a community hospital and will maintain ICU, Medical/Surgical, OB (non-high risk), Acute Mental Illness and Comprehensive Physical Rehabilitation categories of services,” Schneider wrote. “Insight Chicago will continue to operate Mercy Hospital’s ED as a basic Emergency Department.”
* Sun-Times…
Mercy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, saying it was losing staff and experiencing “mounting financial losses” which challenged its ability to maintain a safe environment. The move came just two weeks after a state review board rejected Trinity Health’s proposal to open an urgent care and diagnostic center on the South Side. The same board unanimously rejected a plan in December to close Mercy.
Mercy — which was the site of a deadly shooting in November 2018 — was set to merge with three other South Side hospitals struggling financially, though that plan fell through due to a lack of state funding.
Until the pending deal with Insight Chicago is signed, Mercy’s overall plans for the hospital remain unchanged, the hospital said. As of now, it’s expected to cease operation May 31. If the agreement is finalized before then, Mercy will help Insight Chicago in transitioning services, according to the statement.
* Tribune…
“We plan on a hospital that meets the needs of this great community, while leveraging regional expertise of our health system,” said Dr. Jawad Shah, president and CEO of Insight, in an Insight news release. “We are committed to a thoughtful community engagement process to ensure access to care for Chicago’s diverse populations while achieving financial solvency.”
…Adding… Jordan Abudayyeh…
The Governor believes that healthcare is a right, not a privilege and that’s why his administration has worked tirelessly to exhaust every legal, legislative and administrative option to preserve healthcare access on the southside. The administration is hopeful that any potential buyer would provide the necessary services underserved communities need. And we encourage any buyer to meet with community stakeholders and legislators to better assess how they can work together to achieve better health outcomes for the community Mercy hospital serves. The state of Illinois has supported safety net hospitals throughout this pandemic, and with the General Assembly’s passage of health care transformation legislation, has even more tools to help providers meet the needs of the communities they serve.
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* Set the Wayback Machine to 2014…
After pulling strings to get his daughter into Walter Payton College Prep, Bruce Rauner, a Republican candidate for governor, became one of the elite Chicago public high school’s biggest benefactors.
The Rauner Family Foundation gave $250,000 to the Payton Prep Initiative for Education on Dec. 14, 2009 — about a year and a half after Rauner called then-Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan to overturn his daughter’s rejection for admission, records examined by the Chicago Sun-Times reveal.
Rauner’s gift was the largest the not-for-profit foundation had received up to that point. It amounts to nearly 30 percent of all the money the group has gotten during its first five years, according to records the Rauner and Payton charities have filed with the state.
Rauner’s gift to the Payton Prep Initiative came two months after his foundation gave $500,000 to the Chicago Public Schools Foundation, run by the school system’s top administrators. His foundation previously had given money to that organization.
* Now…
Former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner made a $250,000 campaign contribution to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week after seniors in the uber-wealthy Florida Keys enclave where Rauner owns a home were among the first in the state to receive COVID-19 vaccinations in January.
Rauner’s connection to the favorable treatment first was reported Wednesday by the Miami Herald, which obtained a memo the management of the exclusive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo sent to residents noting that its medical center had vaccinations for residents age 65 and over while most Floridians struggled to access the shots. DeSantis has used the state’s vaccination program to open special distribution sites in select communities while skipping state and local vaccine registration logs, various Florida news outlets have reported.
“Over the course of the last two weeks, the Medical Center has vaccinated over 1,200 homeowners who qualify under the State of Florida’s Governor’s current Order for those individuals who are 65 years of age or older,” the Ocean Reef Club’s message to residents read, according to the Herald. “We are fortunate to have received enough vaccines to ensure both the first and second for those vaccinated. At this time, however, the majority of the State has not received an allocation of first doses of vaccines for this week and beyond, and the timing of any subsequent deliveries remains unclear.”
In its report, the Herald stated that contributions to DeSantis’ political fund surged amid the disbursement of vaccines, noting the only contributions the Florida governor received from Key Largo were from Ocean Reef residents.
* And…
Since DeSantis started using the state’s vaccine initiative to steer special pop-up vaccinations to select communities, his political committee has raised $2.7 million in the month of February alone, more than any other month since he first ran for governor in 2018, records show.
A spokesperson for the governor did not immediately respond to email and telephone messages, but, after the story was published, DeSantis spokesperson Meredith Beatrice said that the governor was not involved in selecting the Ocean Reef Club for the early vaccine distribution. She did not explain how the club obtained so many doses ahead of others. […]
By hand-selecting the communities, DeSantis allows residents to bypass state and local vaccine registration systems and go directly through their community organizations, like the Medical Center at Ocean Reef. […]
The effort has brought scrutiny from DeSantis’ critics as the state’s vaccine distribution appears to be inequitable. By the end of February, only 5.6% of those who’ve been vaccinated in the state are Black, even though Blacks account for 17% of the state’s population, state records show.
He might want to bump up his apparent standard tip. $250,000 in 2014 is equal to $279,568.31 today. /s
…Adding… React…
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