COVID-19 vaccine: More than 14% of Illinois is fully vaccinated rrstar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rrstar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Emily Bollinger / WGLT
The state of Illinois is expanding eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine starting Thursday, but people with underlying medical conditions will likely still have a difficult time getting the vaccine in McLean County.
Even pharmacies that have said they plan to offer the vaccine on the state’s timeline already are booked days or weeks in advance.
The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) has said it won’t expand eligibility at its clinics until vaccines are more widely available.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) lists four Walgreens locations in Bloomington-Normal that are distributing COVID vaccines, but none have appointments available for the next three days, according to its website.
This seems to be the perfect case for name and shame when it comes to the counties/entities refusing the help.
I know you said “I did not make that up” but come on someone made that up, that can’t be real, can it?
Home rule in Illinois is a mess. There is so much inefficiency at the local and county level. Extra taxes, extra costs, extra red tape, just so local politicians can get stick their fingers in everything.
“a Chicago physician can go to one of these home rule counties to perform
heart surgery with no questions asked, but they can’t stick needles into peoples’ arms”
Canton Daily Ledger
SPRINGFIELD The statewide COVID-19 positivity rate ticked down slightly on Tuesday to 8. 5%, marking nearly a month that the rate has stayed below 10%.
The rolling seven-day average statewide case positivity rate dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point, from 8.6% the day before. The rate has remained below 10% since Dec. 8, and well below second-wave highs of 13.2% in mid-November.
On Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 6,839 new confirmed and probable cases of the virus, among 991,719 total cases and more than 13.6 million tests since the pandemic began.
The COVID-19 death toll has reached 16,959, including 126 additional deaths reported Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, only four of the state’s 11 mitigation regions had not met the criteria Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration provided to return to Tier 2 mitigations, from Tier 3.
Illinois Chamber of Commerce says push to end incentives wrong approach
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce says the push to end business incentives to plug the state’s nearly $4 billion budget hole is the wrong approach during an economic crisis.
CEO Todd Maisch said the government should be helping businesses, not punishing them with higher taxes.
Statehouse Democrats are pushing to end what they call “loopholes” and “giveaways” for businesses instead of the governor’s proposed $711 million in cuts.
Pritzker says unemployment issues not unique to Illinois
Gov. J.B. Pritzker says the problems Illinois’ unemployment agency is experiencing with backlogs and fraud is happening in other states.