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More essential workers who were previously not eligible for Illinois Phase 1B Plus guidelines are now eligible for the COVID vaccine starting Monday.
Governor JB Pritzker announced earlier this month that Illinois would expand eligibility to residents in more areas of work as the state seeks to open up access to vaccines to all adults outside of Chicago on April 12.
Food and beverage workers, construction workers and religious leaders are now all eligible for the vaccine starting Monday. Last week, higher education staff, government officials and the media became eligible.
Here’s a look at the full vaccine eligibility schedule in Illinois:
| Dated | Eligible groups |
| December 15, 2020 | Healthcare workers, staff and residents of long-term care facilities |
| January 25, 2021 | Essential front-line workers (including first responders, K-12 teachers and other public-oriented industries) and residents 65 and over |
| February 25, 2021 | Residents with high-risk conditions or disabilities, aged 16 and over |
| March 22, 2021 | Higher education staff, civil servants and the media |
| March 29, 2021 | Restaurant staff, construction workers and religious leaders |
| April 12, 2021 | Any resident aged 16 and over |
Chicago also expanded eligibility on Monday by moving to Phase 1C, which includes many of those same essential workers as well as now people with underlying health conditions. The city operates on its own framework and schedule as it receives its vaccine supply from the federal government allocated separately from the state.
For a complete overview of who is eligible for the COVID vaccine in Chicago and Illinois, and when they are eligible, click here.
Pritzker previously announced that all Illinois residents over the age of 16 outside of Chicago will be eligible for the vaccine starting April 12. All vaccinations will remain by appointment only, officials said, noting that “making an appointment to receive a vaccine may take time.”
To find out where and how to make an appointment in Illinois or where you can receive vaccine information for your area, click here.
The April 12 date is ahead of the timeline President Joe Biden laid out earlier this month, saying he would order states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by May 1.
Pritzker said in announcing the expanded eligibility that he felt “confident” in the vaccine supply and that he believed the state could move forward before that deadline.
On Friday, the state also allowed all counties with “low demand” for vaccines to begin immunizing all residents 16 years of age and older at their immediate discretion to “respond to a possible trend of increasing hospitalizations and COVID case rates “.
Illinois has seen a 10-day increase in the seven-day moving average of hospital admissions since March 8, the IDPH said, and the COVID-19 test positivity was 3.3% on Friday – against 2.5% on March 10.
Illinois entered Phase 1B Plus of its vaccine deployment plan late last month, expanding eligibility for people with certain high-risk medical conditions and comorbidities. This is in addition to already eligible healthcare workers and long-term care facility staff and residents who qualified for Phase 1A, as well as essential frontline workers as well as residents aged 65 and under. years and older who became eligible in the first iteration of Phase 1B.
The state remains in Phase 1B Plus of its vaccination rollout, and anyone who has become eligible in this phase or earlier iterations – Phase 1A and Phase 1B – remains eligible to be vaccinated.
For a full overview of who is eligible to be vaccinated under Phase 1B Plus, click here.
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