Here’s the latest update on COVID-19 vaccinations in southwestern Illinois

As of Wednesday, 9,517 people have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the metro-east’s seven counties, according to data released by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Meanwhile, a total of 46,308 shots have been administered, according to data from the state health department.

St. Clair County has administered the most vaccines in the region with a total of 17,093 as of Wednesday, while Madison County had fully vaccinated the most people at 3,477.

Vaccinations of healthcare workers and others in the 1A vaccinations group began in mid-December and have been ongoing since. In St. Clair County, people 75 years and up are now eligible to begin 1B vaccinations.

Vaccinations in Phase 1B are by appointment only at some pharmacies, as well as state-run and locally-run clinics. More detailed information about locations will be announced at coronavirus.illinois.gov.

Here’s how you can let your county health department know you are interested in setting up a COVID-19 vaccine appointment when you become eligible:

• St. Clair County: Fill out the COVID-19 Notification for Vaccine Availability form online at health.co.st-clair.il.us. (If you don’t have internet access or need help signing up, call the health department at 618-825-4447.)
• Madison County: Fill out the Madison County Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Survey online at madisonchd.org. (Temporarily suspended due to high demand)
• Clinton County: Fill out the Clinton County, IL Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Registry online at clintoncountyhealth.com or call the health department at 618-594-6622 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older. You don’t need to fill out the form if you already called to get on the waitlist.)
• Monroe County: Sign up for the phone and email alert system CodeRED.
• Randolph County: Call the health department at 618-826-5007 or fill out one of the following vaccine waiting lists: Memorial Hospital COVID-19 Vaccination Sign-Up online at mhchester.com/covidvax; or Red Bud Regional Hospital’s COVID-19 Vaccine Waiting List online at redbudanytime.com. (The waitlists are currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older.)
• Bond County: Fill out the Bond County, IL Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Registry online at bchd.us to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older, health care workers and frontline essential workers, including teachers, first responders and grocery store employees. You do not need to fill out the form if you already called the health department to get on the waitlist.)
• Washington County: Call the health department at 618-327-3644 to be added to the vaccine waitlist. (The waitlist is currently only for residents who are 65 years old or older.)

Region 4 moving toward relaxed COVID-19 restrictions

The metro-east again met an important COVID-19 threshold Wednesday that could lead to an easing of indoor dining restrictions this week.

The metro-east’s intensive care unit bed availability stood at 20% Wednesday— the same as Tuesday — meaning the region has nearly met all the metrics needed to go to the Rebuild Illinois Plan’s Tier 1 restrictions.

The state health department reported Wednesday that if all the mitigation metrics continue to improve, Region 4 will move into Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan on Thursday. This means restrictions on indoor dining would be lifted.

The region is currently in Tier 2 mitigations, which bans indoor service at bars and restaurants. If the region meets additional requirements, it could move into Tier 1, which allows indoor dining with the lesser of 25 patrons or 25% capacity.

Area lawmakers have been calling for Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health to loosen COVID-19 restrictions further in an effort to help struggling businesses like restaurants that are not permitted to offer indoor services. They argued that the region was close enough to the required metrics and should be returned to Tier 1 along with the rest of the state.

The region must meet the following metrics to move to Tier 1:

• Test positivity rate between 6.5% and 8% for three consecutive days on a seven-day average
• Staffed ICU bed availability must be at 20% or more for three consecutive days on a seven-day average
• No sustained increase in COVID patients in the hospital on a seven-day average for seven of 10 days

Meanwhile, the metro-east’s COVID-19 seven-day average positivity rate on Wednesday stayed under 8% for the 10th-consecutive day at 6.5%, the same as Monday and Tuesday. It’s the lowest the rate has been since Oct. 9.

The metro-east is the last remaining region in Illinois to remain under the state’s tightest COVID-19 restrictions.

Region 4 includes St. Clair, Madison, Bond, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph and Washington counties.

The region also reported a daily positivity rate of 5.1% on Wednesday, down sharply from 7.7% on Tuesday.

The new testing positivity rate is based on data recorded as of Jan. 31. A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a seven-day period.

State of Illinois vaccine update

A total of 1,583,425 doses of vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago. In addition, about 496,100 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 2,079,525. A total of 1,094,135 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of midnight Tuesday, including 175,900 for long-term care facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 45,787 doses. Tuesday, a total of 65,166 doses were administered.

For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.

Meanwhile, the state reported Wednesday roughly 1.92% of its entire population has been fully vaccinated, or 244,588 individuals.

Illinois announces new cases, deaths

The state of Illinois announced 3,314 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,134,231. The state health department also announced 69 additional deaths to bring the total to 19,375 since the pandemic began.

Also within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 96,894 new tests have been administered for a total of 16,258,348.

As of Tuesday, when the latest data was available, 2,469 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 520 patients were in the ICU, and 270 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Jan. 27-Feb. 2 is 3.5%.

This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 1:02 PM.