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Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Illinois will open mass COVID-19 vaccination sites in Des Plaines and Quincy on Thursday. The sites are expected to administer a combined 4,000 doses per day when at full capacity.
The governor’s announcement Wednesday comes as workers completed preparations at the United Center site, where plans call for up to 6,000 people to be inoculated each day by next week. Residents 65 and older can start making appointments Thursday for shots at the United Center
Meanwhile, Illinois administered 82,449 coronavirus vaccine doses Tuesday, public health officials reported Wednesday, reaching a statewide total of 2,900,341. The number of Illinois residents who have been fully vaccinated — receiving both of the required two shots — reached 906,490, or 7.11% of the total population.
Illinois public health officials Wednesday also reported 2,104 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 44 additional deaths. That brings the state’s totals to 1,191,520 cases and 20,626 deaths since the pandemic began.
Illinois COVID-19 vaccine tracker: Here’s where the state stands
COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on key metrics in your area
Illinois coronavirus graphs: The latest data on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more
COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood
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Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
8:20 p.m.: Ex-Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner gave $250,000 contribution to Florida governor after wealthy Florida Keys enclave got vaccines
Former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner made a $250,000 campaign contribution to Florida Gov. Rick 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 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 that the only contributions the Florida governor received from the Florida Keys were from Ocean Reef residents.
Campaign finance records disclosed by the DeSantis campaign show Rauner contributed $5,000 to DeSantis in September, listing a Key Largo address on Card Sound Road, which is in Ocean Reef, as his home. Rauner, who is believed to be a billionaire and is the former chairman of the Chicago private equity firm GTCR, contributed another $250,000 on Feb. 25 — a week after he turned 65, the threshold to receive a vaccine in Florida at the time.
It’s unclear if or when Rauner received a vaccination. The former governor, who listed his occupation as retired on his campaign contributions, could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Read more here. —Bill Ruthhart
6:25 p.m.: Chicago to ramp up vaccine outreach to seniors in March through home-based appointments with CFD, which will also offer caregivers the shot
The city of Chicago is hoping to blanket residents 65 or older with more vaccine availability this month through home-based appointments and pop-up events on the South and West sides as two in three Chicagoans in that age range still await their first dose, officials said Wednesday.
Older residents who cannot easily travel to a vaccine site can participate in a pilot program starting Thursday in which Chicago Fire Department paramedics will give them the shot at their homes, according to a Chicago Department of Public Health news release. Chicagoans fitting that criteria can indicate interest at https://redcap.link/MobileCOVIDVax. Caregivers of homebound older adults also are eligible to get the vaccine.
On Tuesday, city officials announced the upcoming United Center mass vaccination site will prioritize older residents in phase 1b, which includes frontline essential workers and those age 65 or older. Starting Thursday at 8:30 a.m., those residents can register at zocdoc.com/vaccine or by calling (312) 746-4835.
“We’ve declared March ‘Senior Month’ in Chicago and are calling on all Chicagoans to step up and help our seniors sign up and get vaccinated,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote in the release. “The new United Center vaccination site represents a turning point in our COVID-19 recovery effort and a major opportunity for all of us to serve our seniors and protect our residents who are most vulnerable to this virus.”
The city is also partnering with Jewel Osco to host pop-up vaccination events for older residents in 11 communities hardest hit by COVID-19 starting Friday, according to the news release. Those Chicagoans will be contacted through community groups, faith leaders and local Aldermanic offices for registration. They also can email seniorsweek2021@cityofchicago.org or call (312) 746-4835 to sign up.
The rollout will include:
March 5 – Fuller Park, Grand Blvd and Bronzeville: Taylor Park
March 6 – Garfield Ridge and West Elsdon: Hale Park
March 7 – East and West Garfield Park: Garfield Park Gold Dome
March 8 – South Shore: Cultural Center
March 9 – West Pullman: West Pullman Park
March 10 – Burnside and Calumet Heights: Jesse Owens Park
March 12 – Hermosa: Kosciuszko Park
March 13 – West Lawn: West Lawn Park
March 14 – Lower West Side (Pilsen): Harrison Park
March 14 – Auburn Gresham: Foster Park
TBA – Brighton Park
The existing city-run vaccination sites as well as the temporary events hosted by the Protect Chicago Plus program, which aims to bring up vaccination rates in 15 neighborhoods, also will prioritize elderly residents for appointments, the release said.
—Alice Yin
(Updated) 6:15 p.m.: Illinois set to open two more vaccination sites Thursday as workers put finishing touches on United Center site
The state readied two more mass vaccination sites to open Thursday as workers completed preparations at the United Center site, where plans call for up to 6,000 people to be inoculated each day by next week.
The sites opening Thursday at 1155 E. Oakton St. in Des Plaines and in downstate Quincy, together, are geared to give shots to up to 4,000 people a day once at full capacity, the state said. With those sites, the state has 18 state-supported mass vaccination sites.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office also announced Wednesday that additional Illinois National Guard members are being activated to support seven southern counties with COVID-19 response.
The United Center mass vaccination site is in a parking lot on the northeast side of Madison and Wood streets. Contractors are building six white tents — each covering 5,000 square feet — that will make up the site, said Dan Shulman, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman.
“This is just really on a much grander scale what the typical person that’s going to any other place to get a vaccination is going to experience,” he said.
The site will be the biggest in the state. It will have a “soft opening” on March 9, Shulman said. March 10 will be the first day the site will try to hit its goal of 6,000 vaccines per day. The site will be open seven days a week for eight weeks. Registration will begin 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Read more here. —Paige Fry and Jenny Whidden
4:25 p.m.: Film and TV crews spent less in Illinois because of coronavirus, but ‘2021 seems like it’s going to be a very strong year’
Filmmakers, TV networks and commercial ad teams spent far less money and hired about half as many people in Illinois last year compared to 2019, thanks to a monthslong production shutdown because of the coronavirus, but officials said Wednesday they are seeing the local film industry return to pre-pandemic production levels.
“2021 seems like it’s going to be a very strong year,” Illinois Film Office Director Peter Hawley said at a virtual news conference. “We’re right at the same level we were in our record-breaking 2019 year. We are almost exactly where we were at (in) 2020 — which was going to be a gangbuster year for us — at this time before the pandemic. We’ve also started to see jobs come back in quite a big way.”
Read more here. —Tracy Swartz
3:45 p.m.: What happens to vaccine doses when people miss appointments? Are doses being wasted?
According to Chicago public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, vaccine doses are not being wasted. During a March 2 news conference, she said that is the question she gets most often.
After the Pfizer vaccine is thawed for use, Arwady said, the six doses in the vial must be administered within five days. For the Moderna vaccine’s 10 doses in one vial, it’s 30 days. She said there is a lot of behind-the-scenes planning to ensure that all vaccine is used — from waitlists to putting missed appointments back on zocdoc.com/vaccine to vaccinating workers and volunteers at city of Chicago vaccination sites at the end of the day.
“I want people to hear that there is not wasted vaccine,” she said. “At the city level, when we’re pushing out vaccine, we will push the vaccine that has one day of use on it to sites that we know will use it all at the beginning of the day. The way we allocate vaccine in Chicago and the way people pull vaccine out of the freezers only on a week-by-week basis, we provide vaccine where people are able to say, ‘Here’s how many appointments I have for this week.’ And they’ve got to show they’ve been using 85% or more of their appointments each week.”
This is just one of the questions about COVID-19 readers have sent us that we’ve put to health and science experts. See the full Q&A here. Have your own pandemic question? Send it to the Tribune here. Get the latest Chicago COVID-19 information and updates from Chicago Tribune reporters and editors on our COVID-19 Facebook page.
—Darcel Rockett
(Updated) 2:59 p.m.: O’Hare vaccination sites opening for transportation workers, including CTA, Metra, Uber drivers, flight crews
Transportation workers ranging from train operators to rideshare drivers will be able to get COVID-19 vaccines at new distribution sites at O’Hare International Airport, with some airline employees able to get the shot starting Thursday.
A vaccination site at the Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel open to all transit workers will be able to administer 2,500 vaccines per week, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Matt McGrath. To add capacity, O’Hare’s biggest airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines, will run separate airport vaccination sites for their employees and contractors.
All the O’Hare sites will administer doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine obtained from the Chicago Department of Public Health.
At the O’Hare Hilton site, Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel will begin vaccinating first responders and security workers Friday before expanding access Monday. All employees at O’Hare and Midway Airport, including those who don’t work for airlines, will be eligible, as will Metra, CTA and Pace employees, taxi drivers and rideshare drivers who live or work in Chicago.
Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
2:36 p.m.: Two pharmacists in Decatur fired after one took COVID-19 vaccines home to family, inappropriately mixed doses, emails show
Two pharmacists at Memorial Health System were fired after one of them brought COVID-19 vaccines home to family members and inappropriately mixed doses at the system’s Decatur hospital in December, according to newly disclosed emails from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
A pharmacist “took doses home at the end of the day and administered to her family,” according to an email sent to federal officials Jan. 20 from Heidi Clark, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the state health department. The pharmacist also “pooled doses in the Pfizer vials to draw more vaccine beyond six doses,” at Decatur Memorial Hospital, according to the email.
Angie Muhs, a spokeswoman for Memorial Health System, confirmed in an email that one of the pharmacists diverted two doses. That pharmacist’s family members were not eligible for vaccines at that time, she said.
She declined to answer a question about the other pharmacist’s involvement in the incidents.
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker and Joe Mahr
12:49 p.m.: More than 2.9 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois as state readies two new mass vaccination sites
Illinois administered 82,449 coronavirus vaccine doses Tuesday, public health officials reported Wednesday, reaching a statewide total of 2,900,341.
The number of Illinois residents who have been fully vaccinated — receiving both of the required two shots — reached 906,490, or 7.11% of the total population.
Over the past seven days, the state’s daily average for vaccinations was 84,202.
Read more here. —Jenny Whidden
12:09 p.m.: 2,104 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and 44 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Wednesday announced 2,104 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 44 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 1,191,520 and the statewide death toll to 20,626 since the start of the pandemic.
Officials also reported 80,854 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide test positivity rate was 2.9% for the period ending Tuesday.
—Chicago Tribune staff
10:29 a.m.: Stimulus check updates: Biden, Senate Democrats agree to $80,000 income cap to get COVID-19 relief checks
President Joe Biden and Democrats agreed Wednesday to tighten the upper income limits at which people could qualify for stimulus checks, a Democratic official said, a major concession to moderates as party leaders prepared to move their $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill through the Senate.
The COVID-19 relief measure Senate Democrats planned to unveil will also retain the $400 weekly emergency jobless benefits that were included in a House-approved version of the legislation, the official said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal Democratic conversations.
The changes came with Republicans, who may unanimously oppose the legislation, lashing the bill as an overpriced Democratic wish list that lavishes help on many who don’t really need it.
In a 50-50 Senate where Democrats must remain united, party moderates have been pushing to refocus the bill’s spending more closely on those must hurt by the pandemic and resulting economic slowdown.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6 a.m.: The pandemic is crushing sleep. Here are 5 tips to help you get better shut-eye.
This pandemic has impacted everything, so it is no surprise that it also has interrupted our sleep.
We’re worried about everyone in our lives, we’re drinking too much alcohol and coffee, and even when we are in bed, we often are not experiencing good quality sleep.
Those are just a few reasons that psychologist Michael Breus notes it makes perfect sense people are facing sleep issues. Studies have revealed insomnia and other sleep issues during the pandemic.
“We’re just not able to handle this level of stress, and of course it’s coming out in our sleep,” Breus said.
Here are some more tips:
Wake up at the same time every day
Set a cutoff for caffeine and booze
Get out for exercise
Improve your sleep space
Have a plan to get back to sleep and don’t look at the clock
Read more here. —Alison Bowen
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