CAPITOL RECAP: Illinois 'sprints' to early lead nationally in COVID-19 vaccinations

[December 29, 2020]  By Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD – More than 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Illinois since the first vaccine was approved for emergency use this month, more than any other state in the nation, and state officials expected the pace of the vaccination program to speed up as the federal government began distributing a second drug last week.

Gov. JB Pritzker made that announcement during a virtual media briefing Wednesday, Dec. 23, adding that eventually, larger states like California and Texas will surpass Illinois simply because of the size of their populations.

“But the vaccine team in Illinois sprinted past them all in week one,” Pritzker said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Emergency Use Authorization Dec. 11 for a vaccine developed by the drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, and the state began delivering those vaccines last week.

On Friday, Dec. 18, FDA granted the same authorization for a vaccine developed by Moderna and shipments of that vaccine are now being distributed to hospitals and local health departments throughout the state.

By Saturday, Dec. 26, Pritzker said, the state expected to receive another 23,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, plus 174,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine for distribution throughout Illinois outside of Chicago. In addition, Illinois is dedicating another 37,050 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for a federal government’s vaccination program for long-term care facilities, which is being administered by the pharmacy companies CVS and Walgreen’s.

“And with this week's Moderna shipments, vaccines will have officially reached all 102 counties in Illinois,” Pritzker said.

The city of Chicago, which receives its own shipments directly from the federal government, expected to receive 15,600 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 48,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine last week.

All of the vaccines being distributed in the first phase of the program are earmarked for health care workers and the residents and staff of long-term care facilities. State officials said last week they expected it will take four to six weeks to complete that phase before the program expands to cover people over age 75 and other front-line essential workers.


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VACCINATIONS PLAN: A panel of state lawmakers on Tuesday, Dec. 22, received a briefing on the state’s vaccination plan where they were told the state expects to receive enough vaccines by the end of the month to vaccinate all of its front-line health care workers and more than a quarter of all the residents and staff of long-term care facilities.

Those are the population groups categorized as 1A in the state’s Vaccination Planning Guide, the first people in line for the vaccine.

Andrew Friend, IDPH deputy director for the Office of Preparedness and Response, said that as of Saturday, Dec. 19, the state had received more than 109,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. That included 23,328 doses that were shipped directly to Chicago and 85,800 for the rest of the state.

All of those doses were distributed to hospitals, either through Regional Hospital Coordinating Centers or directly to hospitals that have the equipment to store the vaccine at ultra-low temperatures. Outside of Chicago, they were focused in the 50 counties with the highest death rates per-capita from COVID-19.

Friend estimated it would take four to six weeks to vaccinate all the 1A individuals who agree to get the vaccine. The next group, 1B, will include people age 75 and older and front-line essential workers outside of the health care industry.

After that, he said, will come group 1C, which includes people age 65 to 74 as well as people age 16-64 who have other health issues such as heart or lung disease that put them at high risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19.

Friend emphasized, however, that the length of time it takes to move through those groups will depend on several factors such as how many shipments the state actually receives and the “uptake rate” – the percentage of people within each category who elect to get the vaccine.

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COVID-19 UPDATE: While the number of new COVID-19 cases and people hospitalized in Illinois continue to decline, the state’s coronavirus death toll has surpassed 16,000.

An additional 105 deaths were reported Monday, Dec. 28, by the Illinois Department of Public Health. That brings the total COVID-19 deaths in Illinois to 16,074 among 942,362 cases and more than 13 million test results reported.

The IDPH on Monday reported 4,453 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois.

Statewide, the rolling seven-day average case positivity rate from Dec. 21 to Dec. 27 was 7.2 percent. That is three-tenths of a percentage point lower than the seven-day average case positivity rate reported on Dec. 23, the last day IDPH released COVID data before the holiday weekend. That makes one week of rates below 8 percent.

At the end of Sunday, there were 4,243 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois, a decrease of 350 from Dec. 23.

There were 884 intensive care beds in use by COVID-19 patients as of Sunday night, a decrease of 69 from Dec. 23. That left 840, or just over 25 percent, of ICU beds available statewide.

COVID-19 patients occupied 515 ventilators, a decrease of 21 from the Wednesday prior to the holiday weekend. That left 4,205 ventilators, or 73.7 percent of all ventilators, available for use across the state.

More than 112,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Illinois since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved for emergency use earlier this month.

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RESTRICTIONS REMAIN: Despite positive trends in COVID-19 statistics, Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday, Dec. 23, he has no immediate plans to lift the Tier 3 mitigations currently in effect statewide, which includes the closure of bars and restaurants to indoor service and strict limits on public gatherings.

“The challenge that we have is, what we don't want to do is swing back and forth between mitigations and not having mitigations within days or a week or two of one another,” Pritzker said. “And as we head into the Christmas holiday and New Year's, my concern is that we might see – we are going likely to see – some uptick from Christmas and from New Years in hospitalizations as well as cases.”

“Having said that,” he added, “even if we brought the entire state or specific regions from Tier 3 to Tier 2, that would not open bars and restaurants for indoor service yet. We need to bring it down even further and for a longer period of time.”

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LEGIONNAIRES' DISEASE AT VETERANS HOME: A resident at the state-run veterans home in Quincy has tested positive for both COVID-19 and Legionnaires’ disease, according to a news release from the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and the Illinois Department of Public Health announced on Wednesday, Dec. 23, the agencies are investigating the case of Legionnaires’ disease in a single resident, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 30 and showed pneumonia symptoms on Dec. 16, according to the news release.

The Illinois Veterans Home at Quincy was notified on Dec. 22 of the resident’s positive test for Legionnaires’ disease, which is a severe pneumonia caused by the inhalation of waterborne bacteria.

No other residents have tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease, according to an IDVA spokesperson.

The positive resident lives in Hammond Hall, which had not previously reported the presence of Legionella, the type of bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease. Hammond Hall is one of six residential halls at the Quincy facility in Adams County.

Illinois Public Health Department Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike speaks to the media during a news conference Tuesday in Chicago. (credit: blueroomstream.com)

After the positive Legionnaire’s test was reported on Dec. 22, Quincy facility staff and officials with the Adams County Health Department spoke by phone with representatives from the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Dr. Avery Hart, who is a medical consultant for the IDVA homes on behalf of IDPH, according to the news release.

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FUNDING FOR CHILD CARE PROVIDERS: Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday, Dec. 23, announced that his administration is increasing funding for child care providers that take part in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP, a program that helps low-income families pay for child care.

Pritzker said the state will invest $20 million of its remaining allocation from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES Act, to pay for all eligible days of child care for families enrolled in the program, regardless of the child’s actual attendance, for all of December, January and February.

In addition, he said, the Department of Children and Family Services will lift the capacity limits all licensed family child care providers this month, returning them to full capacity. He said licensed child care centers may return to full capacity in early January, if the COVID-19 rolling positivity rate remains below 9 percent.

The money will also be used to buy and distribute personal protective equipment to child care providers throughout the state.

Pritzker said the intent of the additional funding is to provide some financial stability to child care providers who have seen their enrollments decline or have had staff call in sick during the pandemic.

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LAWSUIT UPDATE: In early July, a judge in downstate Clay County voided Gov. JB Pritzker’s executive orders in a sweeping order that he applied to the entire state, at the request of a southern Illinois lawmaker who sued Pritzker over his response to the pandemic.

More than six months later, Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow has essentially voided Judge Michael McHaney’s July 2 order in the case of Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia.

Pritzker’s lawyers asked Grischow last month to “reconsider” the July 2 order from McHaney, who initially presided over Bailey’s case before it was transferred to Sangamon County.

On Monday, Dec. 21, Grischow issued an 11-page opinion vacating McHaney’s order, including “the order wherein Judge McHaney applied it to ‘all citizens of the state of Illinois.’”

Grischow also denied Bailey’s request from October to find Pritzker in contempt for failing to follow McHaney’s July 2 order.

McHaney’s order found Pritzker’s emergency powers ended on April 8 — the date his first disaster proclamation lapsed — and it declared the Illinois Department of Public Health as the “proper authority to restrict a citizen’s movement and/or forcibly close their business premises….”

Regarding the claim that Pritzker’s emergency powers ended on April 8, Grischow found that the state law in question — the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act — allows the governor to issue more than one 30-day disaster proclamation.

She wrote that her interpretation of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act is consistent with a 2nd District Appellate Court decision from November, in FoxFire Tavern LLC v. Pritzker, et al. In that case, a Kane County restaurant sued the governor for exceeding his authority under the law by imposing a ban on indoor dining and the appellate court ruled in favor of Pritzker.



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SURGEON GENERAL VISITS: The top public health official in the United States said Tuesday, Dec. 22, that the COVID-19 trends in Illinois are improving and he urged the public to get vaccinated as soon as the doses become available to them.

“The numbers here in Illinois are moving in the right direction and we have a finish line in sight with these two vaccines,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said during a news conference in Chicago.

Adams was referring to the vaccines that were recently granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, one developed by the drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, and another by Moderna. The state began distributing the Pfizer vaccine last week and expects to begin shipping the Moderna vaccine this week.

The major difference between the two vaccines is that the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at an ultra-low temperature of 80 below zero, whereas the Moderna vaccine can be stored at temperatures up to 20 below zero. Both have been shown to be 94 to 95 percent effective in preventing people from developing COVID-19 symptoms.

But while people are waiting for their turn to receive the vaccine, Adams urged people to continue following public health guidelines – wearing face masks in public, frequently washing hands and wiping down surfaces and avoiding large gatherings.

“We can’t let fatigue let us make poor decisions this holiday season that end up making us backtrack, especially when we are so incredibly close to getting ourselves and everyone else across the finish line,” he said.

Adams was in Chicago to tour local hospitals there as they administered vaccinations and to meet with the state’s public health director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, as well as Chicago’s public health director, Dr. Alison Arwady, to get an update about the state’s vaccination program.

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INDOOR DINING BAN APPEAL: Lawyers for a Kane County restaurant are asking the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court decision that found the governor’s indoor dining ban was lawfully imposed.

FoxFire Tavern is one of dozens of restaurants that sued Gov. JB Pritzker and his administration after he issued an executive order imposing stricter restrictions on businesses, including a ban on indoor dining and bar service, in response to rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations throughout the state.

The state’s highest court has not yet weighed in on the legal arguments challenging Pritzker’s power to impose the indoor dining ban, or any other restrictions implemented in his numerous executive orders.

The 2nd District Appellate Court’s decision last month that upheld Pritzker’s order prohibiting restaurants from allowing indoor dining cannot stand because it “leaves the restaurant industry out in the cold and without legal redress,” Kevin Nelson, one of FoxFire’s attorneys, wrote in the legal brief to the Illinois Supreme Court submitted on Friday, Dec. 18.

The brief asks the court to accept the case and reverse the appellate court’s ruling on the governor’s executive order. However, since the court is not obligated to hear the case, the justices could reject that request and decline to rule on it.

The restaurant won an early victory after suing Pritzker in October when a Kane County judge granted the restaurant’s request for a temporary restraining order that allowed FoxFire to ignore the new indoor dining restrictions contained in the executive order.

The 2nd District Appellate Court’s decision last month overruled the Kane County judge’s decision. The appellate court rejected the arguments from FoxFire’s legal team that Pritzker is limited, under state law, to issue one 30-day disaster proclamation, and also does not have the power to order businesses closed.

Instead, the appellate court found that state law empowers the governor to issue multiple disaster declarations. The appellate court also ruled that Pritzker’s executive order did not amount to a “closure” for businesses, and therefore, Illinois Department of Public Health Act regulations governing business closures did not apply in this case.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.