CHICAGO (WLS) — Illinois is set to enter the next vaccination phase beginning Monday, experts announced.
As part offers 1B, people 65 and older and many essential workers will be newly eligible to receive the vaccine.
The Illinois National Guard will be assisting with vaccinations at Cook County Health Centers in half a dozen suburbs.
There are more deployments planned throughout the state.
Officials said that beginning Monday, those guard-supported sites will take 1B appointments as will pharmacies at hundreds of Walgreens, CVS and Jewel locations.
Mariano’s, Kroger, and Hy-Vee will also take vaccine appointments beginning on February 1.
Gov. JB Pritzker said there are plans to launch walk-in locations once the supple of vaccine increases.
Pritzker said he was pleased with the state’s progress against the pandemic, but frustrated by the lack of available vaccine.
To make it easier for people to find out where they can go to get vaccinated, the state is setting up an online portal.
Due to the shortage of the vaccine, shots will be given by appointment only.
Illinois health officials reported 5,152 new COVID-19 cases and 97 deaths Saturday as the state announced Chicago and Cook County have dropped to Tier 1 mitigations on Saturday.
That means restaurants and bars will be able to reopen for limited indoor dining.
SEE ALSO: Chicago indoor dining reopens Saturday as city, suburban Cook Co. move to Tier 1
The total number of cases in Illinois now stands at 1,098,527 , with a total of 18,711 deaths, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Friday’s number of new positive COVID-19 cases is higher than it has been recently and reflects an adjustment to the state’s probability case count, according to IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.
WATCH: Gov. Pritzker gives latest on vaccines, restrictions, new variant on Jan. 22, 2021
As of Friday night, 1,112,725 doses of vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago, with an additional 524,050 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care facilities, bringing the total number delivered in Illinois to 1,636,775.
RELATED: Illinois COVID vaccine map shows how many residents vaccinated by county
IDPH reports that a total of657,820 vaccine doses, including 106,274 at long-term facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered is 26,666.
The IDPH says that vaccine distribution numbers are reported in real-time and vaccine administration numbers lag by as much as 72 hours.
The Illinois National Guard has joined the vaccination effort, administering shots at the Cook County Health Center in North Riverside, one of six locations in suburban Cook County where the National Guard is helping.
“Over the next three weeks, approximately 25 additional National Guard vaccination teams are deploying to more sites in high need areas all across the state,” Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday.
Officials said starting Monday, the guard-supported sites will take Phase 1B appointments for people 65 and older and many essential workers. So will pharmacies at hundreds of Walgreens, CVS and Jewel locations.
Starting Feb. 1, Mariano’s Kroger, and Hy-Vee will also take appointments. The state is now working on a portal.
“People will be able to go to a website that will get them to either their local public health department or to a pharmacy where they can sign up for an appointment,” Pritzker said.
Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 125,831 specimens for a total 15,209,516.
As of Thursday night, 3,179 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 661 patients were in the ICU and 348 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
RELATED: Illinois coronavirus testing: Where to get tested for COVID-19 in Illinois, Chicago area
The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from Jan. 15-21 is 6.2%.
The test positivity rate is a metric the state began providing in late October. It is calculated by using the total number of positive tests over the total number of tests. This is the metric being used to by state health officials to make decisions about mitigations.
With the positivity rate at mid-October levels, the governor announced all Illinois health regions have now exited Tier 3 mitigations. And while many businesses will be allowed to partially reopen in their new tiers, hospitality industry experts think it may already be too late. The Illinois Restaurant Association estimates 20 percent of restaurants will not survive the pandemic; 5,000 could close, eliminating 120,000 jobs.
Metro East Region 4 also moved to Tier 2 Friday, bringing all Illinois regions out of Tier 3 mitigations, according to IDPH. Region 4 includes, Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair, and Washington counties.
All high school sports can now take place in regions that are in Phase 4 of the “Reopen Illinois” plan, which currently includes regions 3, 5 and 6 – all of which are downstate.
None of the Chicago-area regions currently fall in that category, which means competitions in high-risk sports like basketball, football and wrestling still cannot take place here.
“With all regions of Illinois now out of Tier 3, we can now see that the entire state is headed down the right path,” Dr. Ezike said. “During the summer, we were on this same path. We know that we must continue to take precautions and be smart about how we relax some of the mitigation measures, which are in place to protect our health and safety.”
You can see a map of the Restore Illinois regions here and the differences between Illinois’ COVID-19 mitigation tiers here.
Find out how many people may get a COVID-19 vaccine before you
The deaths reported Friday include:
Adams County: 1 male 80s
Boone County: 1 female 50s
Champaign County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s
Christian County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 female 40s, 1 male 40s, 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 3 females 60s, 3 males 60s, 4 females 70s, 2 males 70s, 3 females 80s, 2 males 80s, 2 females 90s, 2 males 90s
DeKalb County: 2 males 80s
DuPage County: 1 female 30s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
Effingham County: 1 female 80s
Jo Daviess County: 1 male 70s
Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 2 males 80s
Kankakee County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 80s
Lake County: 2 females 60s, 4 males 70s, 2 females 80s, 2 males 80s, 2 females 90s, 1 male 90s
LaSalle County: 1 male 80s
Logan County: 1 female 60s
Madison County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 90s
Massac County: 1 female over 100
McHenry County: 1 female 90s
Montgomery County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
Perry County: 1 male 70s
Rock Island County: 2 females 90s
Sangamon County: 1 female 80s
Schuyler County: 1 female 60s
St. Clair County: 2 females 60s, 5 males 60s, 2 females 80s, 1 female 90s
Tazewell County: 1 male 80s
Vermilion County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 80s
Wabash County: 1 female 90s
White County: 1 female 80s
Will County: 1 male 60s
Williamson County: 1 female 70s
Winnebago County: 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Woodford County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
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