Thread by @BauerJournalism

Gov. JB Pritzker has a coronavirus update at 2:30 p.m. I'll live tweet.

Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions.

blockclubchicago.org/2021/01/11/cor…

Pritzker: "First, on vaccines: As of last night, approximately 587,900 total doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been delivered to the state of Illinois." 478,000+ to private/public health care providers outside Chicago; 109,725 to those in Chicago.

Pritzker: The vaccination program for long-term care facilities is a federally-operated pharmacy partner program. Doses are removed from Illinois' allocation before they receive deliveries. So far, they've acquired about 231,400 total doses to vaccinate facility staff/residents.

Pritzker: 172,500 outside Chicago and 58,900 in Chicago.

Illinois as a whole, including Chicago + pharmacy partnership program, has administered 343,939 vaccine doses as of last night. 36,867 by local pharmacy partnership and 298,072 under control of health care providers.

Pritzker: Starting tomorrow, Illinois' latest vaccine numbers will be online through IDPH. They'll be updated daily.

Pritzker: CDC's posting of doses delivered/administered can be delayed, so IDPH will be more up to date.

Pritzker: Health care providers can reported vaccinations up to 72 hours after they've been administered. There can be a "significant time lag."

Pritzker: Vaccine doses distributed to Illinois are reported immediately, so there's a mismatch on CDC and IDPH websites on vaccine doses distributed vs. administered.

Pritzker: "Statewide, we have made significant progress in Phase 1A, and I appreicate the hard work of health care providers across the state to move as quickly as possible through this phase." Some communities have "substantially" completed 1A. IDPH lets them move into 1B.

Pritzker: 1B will take "many weeks to complete." if it's not available in your area now, it's because many counties aren't through with 1A.

Pritzker: He expects to make a formal announcement later this week on when Illinois will move into Phase 1B on a statewide basis.

Pritzker: Tier 3 mitigations have been put in place throughout the state since Nov. 20. That's helped keep hospital beds available during the holiday season.

"This fall and winter have brought the United States to new all-time records in hospitalizations and deaths, and ...

"Illinois has not been immune to that. But in large part because we acted before Thanksgiving with Tier 3 mitigations," Illinois has seen stats drop by over a third while other places are surging. "That said, our success is relative, and it's precious. We still have nearly ...

"twice as many COVID patients in the hospital" as in the summer. We've seen recent fluctuations in case rates and positivity that have "stalled" the downward trajectory.

Pritzker: "I want to be clear just as regions moved into mitigations with a data-driven approach," they can move to lower tiers of mitigations Jan. 15.

blockclubchicago.org/2021/01/06/ill…

Pritzker: What regions need to move down:
• A test positivity below 12% for three straight days (as measured by seven-day rolling average)
• 20%+ available staffed ICU and general hospital beds for three straight days (on a three-day rolling average)
• Decline in number of ...

people hospitalized with COVID-19 for 7 out of 10 days on a seven-day average.

Pritzker: If things continue to improve in a region, IDPH will reclassify that region to Tier 2->Tier 1->Phase 4.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health: It was "almost exactly a year ago when we announced the first COVID-19 case here in Illinois, and it's been a long, challenging year — but the end is in sight."

Ezike: "Vaccination is essential to us moving forward, but it only works if we actually utilize this critical resource. I understand that people are hesitant about getting this new vaccine. They are concerned it was developed quicker than ones we have seen in the past. ...

"However, I want to assure you that every step that is required for vaccine authorization was followed for the current COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine did go through rigorous clinical trial" in which thousands were vaccinated and followed.

Ezike: She encourages people to share their vaccination experience by posting pics of them getting their vaccinations with the hashtag #VaxUpIllinois.

Pritzker: He'll work with whoever the state House of Reps picks for speaker. "Choosing the speaker is the sole responsibility of those representatives, and it is clear that the members are taking their choices seriously."

Pritzker: It's the responsibility of the governor to work with the leaders of both parties. "The last time I spoke with the speaker was a couple of days ago about the decoupling bill."

Pritzker: The Republicans want to have it both ways, right? They want to claim, they want to demand cuts in state government, but they don't want to accept any that would affect constituencies that support them. We've got look at the entire state budget.

Pritzker: We've got 3.2 million people in Phase 1B. "What I have been very focused on is two things: One is lowering the age because, as you know, the people who have died most often from COVID-19 are those who are older. The age bracket that I put forward, 65 and over, covers...

"a great deal of those. Second feature of the changes I made is really to focus on equity. We know that Black and Brown communities have been ill-affected by COVID in a way others have not ... ."

Pritzker: "I have favored ending cash bail ... . That's just one example. There are quite a number of others. I favor the work that the attorney general is doing on police reform."

Pritzker: The General Assembly has not met for quite some time. There are a number of bills that need to be worked on and passed. There's a "plethora of legislation that is moving through."

Pritzker: The Illinois State Police are "quite well aware of the challenges that may crop out."

Pritzker: "What we want to do is restore confidence that people have in our Veteran's Affairs Department, and we want to do our best" to take care of vets.

Pritzker: What we have talked about in moving to Phase 5 that vaccines are widely available and our intention in putting that out was to make sure that, actually, people are being vaccinated. Right now, as you know, we're not receiving enough vaccine for the state of Illinois....

We don't even have 1 million doses and there are ~12.7 million Illinoisans.

Pritzker: There's a lot of work being done in the Legislature on this issue. "Suffice to say we obviously want to attract more people to keep good police officers on duty ... . I am committed to important aspects of police reform."

Ezike: There are patterns where a lot of people might get tested before a holiday. Illinois saw the numbers start to pick up last week, though the weekend was low again. "I don't think — I have not been made aware of a backlog; if that is the case, of course, we will let you ...

"know that ... ."

Ezike: The governor will announce the 1B transition date. People vaccinated in 1A can still get vaccinated then.

Ezike: In March, we could have this new variant be the majority of our cases. That means we'll have more infectious spread.

It is very important we get as many people vaccinated as possible now. "We know that this is brewing and therefore we have the opportunity to use that ...

"information and make better choices around the mitigations, around avoiding gatherings, so we can get as many people vaccinated and staying safe before this variant inevitably takes over and cases what it wants to cause, which is more cases & eventually that means more deaths."

Ezike: There were 850,000 people in this initial swathe of the population, but there are 3.2 million in Phase 1B, including "lots of eager individuals that want to get the vaccination. ... I think the product will be flying off the shelves, if you will."

Pritzker: "We're actually at a pretty good pace administering." Online data can be misleading since doses delivered is updated immediately, while there can be a three-day delay in doses administered.

Pritzker: He just read a story about foreign nationals flying to Florida to get vaccinated ahead of people who are authorized to vaccinated. "That's improper."

Pritzker: The feds have been holding back "enormous stores of vaccines, and we should be getting that out to people as fast as possible ... ."

Pritzker: "You may recall that we had mitigations in place before the Tier 3 mitigations were announced. We already had Tier 1 and Tier 2 mitigations that had been imposed on every region of the state of Illinois, and then we sought a continuing surge happening all across the ...

"United States and, of course, in Illinois ... . Look, that's helped to mitigate — remember what happened in between the peak that she's talking about and today. We had Thanksgiving which, I think, everybody in the country knew was going to create some kind of a surge, so you ...

"needed to offset the surge as best you could ... ." Then came Christmas and NYE. "Things are going in the right direction. Jan. 15 we'll be able to move regions from Tier 3 to whatever tier they're qualified for at that point."

Press conference over.