Published May 7, 2021 •
Updated on May 7, 2021 at 6:36 am
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Illinois will move into the Bridge Phase of its COVID reopening plan next week and is on track to fully reopen in Phase 5 as early as next month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has announced.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old girl from suburban Bolingbrook has died after testing positive for COVID-19, her parents say. Don t miss local breaking news and weather! Download our mobile app for iOS or Android and sign up for alerts.
Here are the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic across Illinois today:
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Bolingbrook Teen Dies 2 Days After Testing Positive for COVID, Family Says
Watch Live: Pritzker to Give COVID Update for Illinois
Pritzker will be joined by Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike and other health care providers to give the update at 1:30 p.m. from the Thompson Center in Chicago, according to his public schedule. The news conference can be watched live in the video player above.
Walk-In Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Appointments Coming to Kankakee, Other Illinois Counties
As the state of Illinois looks to continue to boost access to the coronavirus vaccine, state officials announced that rural vaccination teams will now provide walk-in appointments for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the coming weeks.
Childhood Emotional Neglect Can Be Passed Down to the Next Generations
The new research published by Elsevier has shown that early life experiences can significantly affect brain development and neurobiological health that can affect the next generation. The study showed that the infants of mothers who suffered emotional neglect as a child displayed an altered brain circuitry that is responsible for fear response and anxiety.
Study lead author Cassandra Hendrix, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, USA, said that these results show that our brain development is not only shaped by what happens in our own life but is also impacted by things that happened to our parents before we were even conceived.
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The World Health Organization (W.H.O) last week warned that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading in the UK. The highly contagious strain has caused fresh panic with most countries in Europe barring travel in and out of Britain.
The new strain is considered 70 percent more transmissible than the Covid-19 and has already been detected in Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and most recently, Italy.
Experts are optimistic that the new vaccines will work against the new strain due to the genetic similarity with the original Covid-19 virus.
“There is a strong belief here that the vaccine, as it exists today … will have effectiveness in warding off infection from this new strain in England, in addition to the old strain that we’ve been contending with for months now,” said affiliate assistant professor from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Vin Gupta.