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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is expected to announce a new reopening plan later this week that could ultimately bring the state back to normal, but under new guidelines.
Currently, Illinois is in phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan that the governor announced at the start of the pandemic last year. The next step would be phase 5, which marks a complete reopening, but requires a widely available vaccine or highly effective treatment for the coronavirus.
But at a meeting of the state Senate health committee on Monday, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr Ngozi Ezike, said a new plan to reopen could be announced. “More late this week “.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Ezike said that “there may be one more phase” between phase 4 and phase 5. Few details have been revealed, but one thing is certain: masks will continue to be mandatory in the state, she said, adding that “masks must remain a mainstay.”
A spokesman for the governor confirmed that Pritzker had had “discussions with industry and health experts”.
Earlier this month, Texas became the largest state to lift its mask rule, joining a rapidly growing movement of governors and other leaders across the United States to ease COVID-19 restrictions despite calls from health officials not to let their guard down further.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said he was getting rid of most of the mask warrants he imposed to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It also lifts most other restrictions, including restaurant seating limits.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also announced that she would extend the term of the state mask until April 9, but lift the order after that date.
With the increase in coronavirus vaccinations in Illinois and the widening of eligibility, a full reopening is approaching, but Pritzker has repeatedly said the state is not there yet.
“You know, I said from the start that we need an effective vaccine that we can widely distribute and a very effective or very effective treatment that we could widely distribute and we are getting there,” Pritzker said more early. month. “I mean … about one in seven Illinois residents already have their first dose in their arms. We need to get closer to herd immunity so that everyone feels, you know, that we’re over- beyond phase four and for us to actually be able to fully reopen everything. “
Collective immunity is defined by the World Health Organization as “when a population is immunized either by vaccination or by the immunity developed by a previous infection”, although the group notes that for the coronavirus, such immunity “should be achieved by protecting people by vaccination, not by exposing them. to the pathogen that causes disease.”
The exact amount of herd immunity needed to reopen further remains uncertain, especially with variants of the virus emerging in the United States and around the world and whether current vaccines will continue to provide protection.
“We are still learning about immunity against COVID-19,” the WHO reports. “Most people infected with COVID-19 develop an immune response within the first few weeks, but we don’t know how strong or long-lasting this immune response is, or how it differs between people. People have also been reported. infected with COVID-19 for a second time. Until we better understand COVID-19 immunity, it won’t be possible to know what proportion of a population is immune and how long that immunity will last, let alone make future predictions.
Already, however, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said the city may see a summer more like “what we normally live in,” and the governor’s office has noted that McCormick Place may bring back some events as well.
“We know so much more about the virus, how it is spread, than a year ago,” Lightfoot said last week. “We know, in particular, about outdoor events – that we can handle them in a way that is safe and consistent with public health guidelines. So like I said, I think summer 2021 is more like this. that we have normally experienced. “
Illinois earlier this year lifted its tiered mitigation plan, bringing all of its regions back to Phase 4 guidelines as cases and hospitalizations continue to decline steadily in the state. The move to Phase 4 brought catering back in and reopened several businesses, while increasing capacity limits in others.
The first coronavirus vaccinations were given in Illinois in January, as healthcare workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities began receiving doses.
Since then, the state has entered its next phase of vaccine deployment, called Phase 1B, opening vaccines to essential frontline workers and residents aged 65 and over. This group has expanded to include people aged 16 and over with certain high-risk medical conditions and comorbidities. Chicago, along with several suburbs and health care systems, chose not to enter the expansion phase, citing supply limitations.
On Monday, Pritzker said Illinois plans to go beyond President Joe Biden’s promise to make all adults eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine by May 1.
“I just think people should start thinking a lot about the fact that we’re going to open this up to everyone relatively sooner than I think,” Pritzker said in a one-on-one interview with NBC. Mary Ann Ahern, 5 years old.
In total, Illinois has received 5,038,635 doses of the vaccine, and a total of 4,102,810 have been administered in the state.
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