Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

And now for the not-so-good news

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Illinois

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Monday she’s concerned the U.S. could experience “another avoidable surge” in coronavirus infections due to new variants, if people don’t follow mitigation measures like mask-wearing and social distancing.

Why it matters: A growing number of states have moved to reopen despite the spread of new variants. States are increasingly attributing their coronavirus cases to variants, Walensky noted. […]

What she’s saying: “We must act now, and I am worried that if we don’t take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge — just as we are seeing in Europe right now and just as we are so aggressively scaling up vaccination,” Walensky said.

* Daily Herald…

New cases of COVID-19 have risen by more than 22% in the last seven days, Illinois Department of Public Health data showed Monday.

Daily cases from March 16 to Monday totaled 12,970, or 1,853 a day, compared to 10,596 infections, or 1,514 a day, March 9-15.

There have been fluctuations in caseloads recently with tallies from early this month reaching 11,678, or 1,668 a day, March 2-8. But experts are watching the numbers as the state loosens restrictions on activities and cases of more contagious variants of COVID-19 inch up.

The IDPH recorded 143 COVID-19 variant cases Sunday: 135 of a COVID-19 mutation originating in the United Kingdom, five of a Brazilian version, and three of a South African variant. That contrasts with 126 reported Tuesday: 120 of the United Kingdom variant and three each of the Brazilian and South African ones.

* Chicago is still having supply and delivery issues…

Chicago public health officials said they have no plans to open a vaccination site that would be open 24 hours a day — as some other cities have done.

At a press conference on the city’s vaccinations efforts, officials were asked about the possibility of opening an around-the-clock center to speed up vaccines and increase accessibility for essential workers. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the main focus right now is increasing vaccine supply.

“At this point, there’s not plans for a 24-hour situation,” Arwady said “We’ll see what the demand looks like and we’ll see what the vaccine supply looks like.”

* Related…

* COVID Vaccine Appointment Frustration Rises In Will County As Eligibility Increases in Illinois

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 4:58 am

Comments

I recognize Chicago & Cook County are a whole different scale, but seeing Southern IL at a point where folks can just walk in to get a shot when we are still at Hunger Games stage up here stings a little.

Comment by Montrose Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 6:15 am
I recall awardy saying in dec the city was ready for the vaccine roll out and had prepared for months….arhhhhhh

Comment by Masker Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 7:18 am
“seeing Southern IL at a point where folks can just walk in to get a shot when we are still at Hunger Games stage up here stings a little.”

That is how Southern Illinois feels on every issue all the time….

Comment by Front Line Local Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 7:55 am
I can’t trust a thing Dr. Arwady says. She said last Friday that the supply of vaccine shipped to the CDPH hasn’t significantly increased for 2 months. Now I understand Chicago having a net deficit of vaccines from suburban inflows/outflows and this hurts because Chicago gets its own shipment from the Feds. That being said, I don’t believe Dr. Arwady is fit for her job and local leaders should start tuning her out.

Comment by Hot Taeks Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 8:18 am
Demand isn’t there? People are driving six hours to get appointments.

Comment by Sonny Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 8:35 am
In my little downstate county, I can find open appointments for tomorrow. Cook and Chicago are a different world, but I thought the shots were being proportioned by population?

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 8:41 am
I showed up early for my second injection last week and the place was empty. They had to find the guy giving the shots.
However Chicago is organizing who gets the vaccine is obviously not working very well. they told me they were real slow all day even though they’re in the heart of a Hispanic neighborhood where the people really need these shots.

Comment by Drake Mallard Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 8:49 am
As the pandemic continues a new wave will be more likely to impact under served communities and communities where willful ignorance has become the central source of pride.

===People are driving six hours to get appointments.===

I have been recommending that people seeking vaccines not only check the website for the state, but the individual websites for pharmacies that have vaccines. Depending where you are in the state it is very easy to schedule an appointment for the same week you’re checking. People that decide to drive 6 hours probably could have found a closer option before making their decision.

Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 8:56 am
I’m worried about the South African variant taking hold here. The vaccines are less effective against it. If the vaccines fail to protect, it’s back to square one, so vaccinate and keep masking. This is nowhere near over, and a little more discipline now, will go a long way to getting us to where we all want to be.

Comment by PublicServant Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 9:02 am
I don’t know why Chicago officials sound so apathetic about when discussing vaccine distribution, like they’re talking about water main replacement.

“Maybe we’ll do this, maybe we’ll do that” at this stage of the rollout is really disheartening and unnerving to hear from leadership.

Comment by Served Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 9:04 am
I just checked and the Sangamon County mass vac site lists multiple available appointments as early as Saturday. Over the next couple of weeks there are well over a hundred available slots. I counted.

Comment by Jibba Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 9:22 am
Here in Will county, it has been endlessly frustrating watching the health department regularly dropping the ball for the past year on almost everything.

Will county has a health department in name only, while departmental behavior is more like a chamber of commerce - and people are needlessly dying because of it.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 9:29 am
===vaccine shipped to the CDPH hasn’t significantly increased for 2 months===

I didn’t hear her say that, but if she did that’s not even close to true. City’s allocation has doubled in that period of time https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/covid19-vaccine/home/vaccination-data-charts.html

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 9:47 am
Kane County’s new “Mass Vax” site has openings as soon as tomorrow afternoon: www.kanevax.org

Comment by DuPage Teacher Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 9:49 am
Jibba - Thanks for heads up concerning Sangamon County, I changed my April appt to today.

Comment by BTO2 Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:02 am
couldn’t interrupt anyone’s nights or weekends with a 24 hour vaccination site. We’re still pretending we’re not in a pandemic.

Comment by Merica Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:08 am
“Avoidable Surge”

When the history of COVID is written, that will be the title.

Comment by Steve Rogers Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:21 am
-…she’s concerned the U.S. could experience “another avoidable surge” in coronavirus infections due to new variants…-

What scares me the most is the scenario where anti-maskers keep spreading the virus which then continues to mutate until finally it’s like the common cold, for which (as we all know) there is no vaccine.

Comment by TinyDancer(FKASue) Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:26 am
I’ll be wondering about the dependence on brick and mortar shot sites for a while. In Chicago I do not understand why the J&J shot isn’t rolled out corner to corner in some instances. Roll out dozens of something akin to a food truck and get it done.

Also - I’d like to see some data on the number of vaccinated people who are testing positive. It’s going to happen, but those folks aren’t going to the hospital so, in a month or two the daily positivity rate won’t be the most important metric to watch.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:27 am
I do not necessarily trust the percentage figures of vaccinated people (by county) that are being published. For instance, if a couple from Lake County had to drive down to Springfield Fairgrounds to get their shots does that info really get back to Lake County? Do residents of the towns and villages in the state which cross county geographic boundaries get reported correctly? How? Are the computer systems updated frequently enough that we have current data?

Comment by Responsa Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:32 am
While Chicago’s allocation may have gone up, the State Journal-Register piece on Sangamon Co. makes it clear that the Governor has not come close to making an equitable distribution, with Sangamon already at 52% of population having received at least the first dose.

Chicago has only received enough vaccine for 43% of its population, even if every dose could already be in someone’s arm, and Chicago refused to give 2nd shots.

Inequitable distribution by agencies under Gov. Pritzker seems like an underexamined topic.

And meanwhile, others are assigned responsibility for his failure - Merica suggests the issue in not opening a 24-hour site is the city’s unwillingness to do so, or maybe staff unwillingness to stay up overnight. When actually the issue is that the Governor hasn’t allocated enough vaccine to make that worthwhile.

Last week, we heard that the primary reason for lower vaccination rates in the African American community might either be vaccination doubt primed by historical mistreatment, failures of local distribution or the hurdles in front of a large number of people, with a racial skew, in getting online. But it would seem the primary cause of inequitable vax rates is actually that Governor is distributing far more vaccine to whiter downstate counties.

What’s up? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Comment by RWC Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:33 am
@Responsa - I’d trust it at a county site or state site for sure. One person I assisted through the process at the Orr Building needed an extra moment after someone with the same name had also been vaccinated. They eventually searched it out by phone number and found the right person.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:40 am
“People that decide to drive 6 hours probably could have found a closer option”

That’s what I did, found one closer but still pretty far away. I tried over and over to get one even closer, but no luck. Was done waiting. Now I’ve reached close to peak first dose immunity, awaiting the second shot. Not everyone can just get up and drive to far away places, which is one reason why Chicago is doing the right thing by vaccinating underserved communities first.

Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:54 am
I share Cool Papa Bell’s view that boots on the ground - mobile trucks, corner setups, door to door - is the way to get underserved communities served. Maybe those with just a bit of hesitancy will get shot if its easier. I’m no expert but I think mobile shots are a viable option with fed, state, county, city support.

Comment by WestBurbs Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 11:20 am
==Cool Papa Bell==

I know that a single anecdote doesn’t tell the full story, but for example my mom got vaccinated while wintering in Florida. She had to provide her Florida tax bill to qualify and everything was registered under that address when she received her shot despite the fact that she is technically a resident of Illinois. I don’t know how that data would ever get tracked back correctly to count in Illinois numbers. Given the number of snowbirds we have she can’t be the only one in this situation.

Comment by tea_and_honey Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 11:21 am
Philly appears to be doing something along the lines of mobile vax, including door-to-door home shots
https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/mobile-covid-vaccine-philadelphia-coronavirus-20210323.html

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 11:22 am
===Or am I misunderstanding something? ===

Yes. Chicago gets its allocation directly from the federal government. State has nothing to do with it.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 11:49 am
=For instance, if a couple from Lake County had to drive down to Springfield Fairgrounds to get their shots does that info really get back to Lake County? Do residents of the towns and villages in the state which cross county geographic boundaries get reported correctly? =

Responsa, I would think that the example you posted is no different than someone who works in Springfield but lives in a county bordering Sangamon (e.g., a State worker who lives in Petersburg, Athens, Virden, etc. but was able to get an appointment for vaccine at the Orr Building at the fairgrounds during their lunch hour or late in the day, then took rest of afternoon off).

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 11:59 am
Every time the restrictions are rolled back, the spread of Covid-19 goes up. Until more people are vaccinated to the point of herd immunity, the surges will likely continue.

Comment by DuPage Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 12:09 pm
==- EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham - Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 11:59 am:==

I appreciate your comment but think you may have missed my point. I was not asking about the out of county shot per se. (I got mine out of county as well.) The issue I was raising is how/or if, the notification of that shot gets transmitted back to the home county of the vaccine receiver so that the county percentages and county comparisons can be calculated and accurate. I haven’t seen an answer to that process from anybody.

Comment by Responsa Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 12:26 pm
=Every time the restrictions are rolled back, the spread of Covid-19 goes up. =

Definitely agreed. And in the last couple weeks we’ve had nearly all regions go back up again as the revised Phase 5 and Bridge plans get announced. That plus St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and gatherings (and warmer spring weather, now March Madness) is probably meaning less social distancing and more restaurant/bar attendance and thus more chances to get COVID.

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 1:05 pm
@West - Agree, not only are they are an option, it’s really the only option for some communities.

The final mile - get it done.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 1:17 pm
@DuPage

=Every time the restrictions are rolled back, the spread of Covid-19 goes up. Until more people are vaccinated to the point of herd immunity, the surges will likely continue.=

The vaccine does NOT prevent you from getting COVID. It prevents you from being put in the ICU and dying. People who have the vaccine WILL get the virus. Its just that they aren’t going to die from it. That’s the point - it’s also why at some point the test positivity rate becomes less important.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 1:25 pm
=The vaccine does NOT prevent you from getting COVID. It prevents you from being put in the ICU and dying.=

This is an important point and The Atlantic recently wrote a very good article on this. But it does illustrate another problem particularly with anti-vaxxers who will say, “see the vaccine doesn’t work.” And there will be any number of talking heads who will claim “if vaccines are so great why do people continue to get coronavirus?” And that will be all the reinforcement the anti-vaxxers need.

Comment by Pundent Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 2:21 pm
===all the reinforcement the anti-vaxxers need===

Zealots don’t need much reinforcement. Just saying.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 2:58 pm
@Responsa

Vaccine data is reported to the state system within 24 hours of vaccination. Some sites are even using the state’s IIS to enter the data in almost real time.

There are two data points to consider: location of vaccination and place of residence of the person being vaccinated. As long as the patient demographic information entered for each shot is correct, the shot will be counted in the correct county, city, etc. So, it doesn’t matter if someone travels from Dupage county to Sangamon county to get a shot. If they live in Dupage, then they are counted as a Dupage resident that received a shot.

Comment by IT Data Guy Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 3:16 pm
A friend of mine was able to get fully vaccinated in Texas while spending the Winter there.

Comment by Mama Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 5:43 pm
=The vaccine does NOT prevent you from getting COVID. It prevents you from being put in the ICU and dying.=
This may not actually be the case. It was only tested to see whether or not it kept recipients out of the hospital/dying, but more studies of vaccinated people are coming out and are looking promising:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2101927?utm_campaign=wp_to_your_health
“Out of 28,184 California health-care workers who received a second dose, only seven tested positive 15 days or more after their second dose. The authors concluded it was a 0.05 percent positivity rate for those who were fully vaccinated, within their sample.”

Comment by Cool Hand Cuke Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 6:55 pm
If there’s extra vaccine down South and not enough in/near Chicago that’s a shipping logistics problem, no?

Comment by Advocate Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 10:59 pm
===no? ===

No.

For the kabillionth time, Chicago gets its doses from the federal government.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Mar 23, 21 @ 11:51 pm