Southwestern Illinois counties surpass COVID-19 vaccination benchmarks Thursday

Metro-east counties eclipsed two COVID-19 vaccination yardsticks Thursday.

According to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Region 4 counties surpassed 50,000 total vaccinations administered (50,068) and 10,000 individuals fully vaccinated (10,096).

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

St. Clair County had administered the most vaccines in the region with a total of 18,693 as of Thursday, while Madison County had fully vaccinated the most people at 3,621.

Vaccinations of healthcare workers and others in the 1A vaccinations group began in mid-December and have been ongoing. 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 has COVID-19 restrictions relaxed

The metro-east met an important COVID-19 threshold Thursday that resulted in a relaxation of indoor dining restrictions this week.

The metro-east’s intensive care unit bed availability stood at 21% Thursday — marking the third-straight day of at least 20% — meaning the region has met all the metrics needed to go to the Rebuild Illinois Plan’s Tier 1 restrictions.

The IDPH, in turn, on Thursday announced the metro-east is moving to Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan effective immediately. Additional information about which tier and phase regions are in can be found at the top of the IDPH website homepage.

Phase 4 guidelines include the following:

• Restaurants and bars: Indoor dining and drinking now permitted for parties of up to 10 people• Seated areas should be arranged so that tables allow for 6 feet between parties; impermeable barriers may be installed between booths which are less than 6 feet apart.
• Retail and service counter: Continue capacity limit of no more than 50% occupancy.
• Personal care: Continue capacity limit of no more than 50% occupancy.
• Indoor/outdoor recreation: Reopening select indoor recreation facilities (e.g., bowling alleys, skating rinks); indoor playgrounds and trampoline parks should remain closed; indoor recreation to operate at lesser of 50 customers or 50% of facility capacity.
• Museums: Capacity limit of no more than 25% occupancy; guided tours should be limited to 50 or fewer people per group.
• Meetings and social events: Limit to the lesser of 50 people or 50% of room capacity; multiple groups may meet in the same facility if they are socially distanced and in separate rooms.

The region had to 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 Thursday stayed under 8% for the 11th-consecutive day at 6.1%, down from 6.5% on Wednesday. It’s the lowest the rate has been since Oct. 5.

The region also reported a daily positivity rate of 5.3% on Thursday, up slightly from 5.1% on Wednesday.

The new testing positivity rate is based on data recorded as of Feb. 1. 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 Thursday

A total of 1,629,550 doses of vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago. In addition, approximately 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 2,125,650. A total of 1,156,453 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of midnight, including 178,848 for long-term care facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 46,709 doses. On Wednesday, a total of 62,318 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 Thursday roughly 2.02% of its entire population has been fully vaccinated, or 256,839 individuals.

Illinois announces new cases, deaths

The state of Illinois announced 3,328 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the total to 1,137,559. The state health department also announced 69 additional deaths to bring the total to 19,444 since the pandemic began.

Also within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 101,307 new tests have been administered for a total of 16,359,655.

As of Wednesday, when the latest data was available, 2,341 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 513 patients were in the ICU, and 265 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Jan. 28-Feb. 3 is 3.4%.