Health

All high school sports – including the higher-risk football, basketball and wresting – may now be played in three regions of Illinois as the state continues to loosen restrictions amid the pandemic.

All regions of the state had moved out of Tier 3 mitigations as of Friday as the COVID-19 health metrics continue to show improvement statewide. The three of the state’s 11 regions that have rolled back to Phase 4 mitigations are free to allow high school sports. Meanwhile, the entire state will move into Phase 1B of its vaccine distribution plan starting Monday.

Only one of the state’s 11 COVID-19 mitigation regions remains at the highest level of restricted activity Thursday as the statewide case positivity rate continues to decline.

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Thursday that Region 7, which includes Will and Kankakee counties, was moved to Tier 1 mitigations, while Region 6 in east-central Illinois moved back to base Phase 4 guidelines.

SSM Health began providing COVID-19 vaccinations to Phase 1B patients on Wednesday at its primary care office in Mt. Vernon. 

The state continued to see progress with its rolling seven-day average COVID-19 case positivity rate, which decreased for the 12th straight day Wednesday.

The rolling positivity rate stood at 5.5 percent, a decrease of two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous day, marking its lowest point since Oct. 20.

Nine of 11 regions in the state’s COVID-19 mitigation plan have seen mitigations lifted in the past week, with two moving all the way back to Phase 4 restrictions.

The announcement came as hospitalizations and positivity rates continued to decline and the state launched a contracting effort to increase hospital staffing, adjusting the available bed metrics that determine mitigation levels.

The state’s COVID-19 seven-day average case positivity rate dropped to 5.7 percent Tuesday, the lowest it has been since Oct. 23.

The positivity rate peaked at 13.2 percent on a rolling average as of Nov. 13, and the entire state entered strict Tier 3 mitigations on Nov. 20. Since then the positivity rate has been on a continual downward trend except for the two weeks following Christmas day when it rose from just under 7 percent to over 8.5 percent before beginning to fall again.

The Egyptian Health Department says all of its COVID-19 vaccination appointments are full at this time.

Officials ask residents of Saline, White and Gallatin counties to monitor the Harrisburg Medical Center Facebook page for further announcements as more vaccine becomes available.

Gov. JB Pritzker announced revisions to his COVID-19 mitigation tiers Friday that would allow earlier indoor dining, but no regions have thus far met the requirements.

He also announced that the whole state would move to Phase 1B of vaccination efforts as of Jan. 25, while some counties might already individually have entered that phase. As well, a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus has been confirmed to be spreading in Illinois.

The statewide seven-day rolling COVID-19 case positivity rate decreased slightly on Thursday to 6.8 percent, remaining below 8 percent for a sixth consecutive day.

The rate dropped from 7.3 percent the day prior. The Illinois Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 6,652 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in the state, with an additional 88 deaths. The state has reported 1,052,682 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and 17,928 deaths across the state’s 102 counties.

The Jackson County Health Department is offering appointments for administering the COVID-19 vaccine during Phase 1B of the state's plan.

This includes those 65 and older as well as frontline workers. The department estimates around 12,000 people in Jackson County are eligible under this phase.

The state’s rolling COVID-19 positivity rate dropped for the fifth straight day as Illinois Department of Public Health officials reported 5,862 new confirmed and probable cases with an additional 97 deaths Wednesday.

The seven-day rolling positivity rate stood was 7.3 percent, down from 8.5 percent one week ago and down two-tenths of a percentage point from Tuesday. The state has reported 1,046,030 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and the death toll is now 17,840 across the state’s 102 counties.

The statewide seven-day rolling COVID-19 case positivity rate remained below 8 percent for a third consecutive day Tuesday after decreasing for a fourth straight day.

Tuesday’s seven-day rolling positivity rate was 7.5 percent, a decrease of one-tenth of a percentage point from Monday.

The Southern Seven Health Department says it'll be wrapping up phase 1A of the COVID vaccine program soon.

Some regions of the state could see loosened COVID-19 restrictions as early as Friday as some counties have already transitioned to the next phase of vaccine distribution, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Monday.

Although the state remains in Phase 1A of its vaccine distribution plan, some communities which have substantially completed Phase 1A have moved to the early stages of Phase 1B.

Illinois reported another 4,711 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 81 additional virus-related deaths Sunday as the rolling seven-day average positivity rate fell below 8 percent.

The state is now reporting a total 1,028,750 cases, including 17,574 total deaths across the state’s 102 counties.

Illinois has reported more than 1 million cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

“In a pandemic that has contained far too many tragic milestones, today’s marking of one million cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in Illinois deserves particular recognition,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a news release.

Statewide Tier 3 COVID-19 mitigations could be lifted within 10 days.

Starting Jan.15, exactly one incubation period from New Year’s Day, any region that has met requirements for a reduction of mitigations will be able to move out of the Tier 3 mitigation plan, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday.

The Illinois Department of Central Management Services is launching the State of Illinois' new comprehensive wellness program for employees, retirees and health plan participants.

The statewide COVID-19 positivity rate ticked down slightly on Tuesday to 8. 5 percent, marking nearly a month that the rate has stayed below 10 percent.

The rolling seven-day average statewide case positivity rate dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point, from 8.6 percent the day before. The rate has remained below 10 percent since Dec. 8, and well below second-wave highs of 13.2 percent in mid-November.

Editor's Note: The weekly hospitalization numbers were calculated incorrectly in a previous version of this document and have been updated with correct numbers

The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations and average case positivity rate remain below second-wave highs while public health officials in Illinois continue to caution residents that a post-holiday surge could materialize.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 5,059 new and probable cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with an average of 5,900 of new cases daily from Dec. 31 to Sunday.

The Clay County Public Health Department is offering expanded COVID-19 testing this weekend, after a large potential exposure to the virus on Christmas Eve.

As Illinois’ COVID-19 hospitalization and case numbers have stabilized since the second-wave highs last month, the governor’s office announced 126,211 vaccinations were administered throughout the state, including Chicago, as of Tuesday evening.

The state has delivered 108,225 vaccine doses of Pfizer and 161,400 doses of Moderna to hospitals throughout the state, not including Chicago, according to Gov. JB Pritzker’s spokesperson.

Illinois reported its third consecutive day with more than 100 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday. Meanwhile, most statistics the state uses to measure progress in combatting the coronavirus ticked up slightly.

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 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.