Coronavirus live blog, Jan. 18, 2021: U. of I.’s COVID control

State health officials on Monday reported 3,385 new and probable COVID-19 cases — its smallest daily caseload in over three weeks — as Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate continued to fall.

Here’s what else happened in Chicago and around Illinois in coronavirus-related news.

News

6 p.m. U. of I.’s COVID protocols praised, copied for new semester after campus saw no hospitalizations or deaths in the fall

When the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced last summer it planned to bring its entire campus back in the fall by using an unproven test its own researchers developed, it was seen as a big gamble.

But after a semester during which the school saw its positivity rate plunge below 1%, with no major outbreaks, hospitalizations or deaths, the university’s testing protocol has become a model. And despite a spike in cases nationwide, the self-developed test is helping UIUC feel confident there won’t be a huge spike in cases when students start arriving for spring semester this week.

Across the nation, other universities took notice of UIUC’s success and are adopting the protocol. The University of Notre Dame started using the saliva-based tests in the fall, and the University of Wisconsin and Millikin University downstate are rolling out the protocol this month.

State schools in Illinois are also partnering with the flagship university. Northern Illinois University started using UIUC’s testing protocol last week, and Illinois State University will begin using the tests as soon as it receives emergency authorization from the FDA, according to spokesmen from both universities.

Read Clare Proctor’s full story here.

5:33 p.m. California becomes first state to top 3 million virus cases

California has become the first state to record more than 3 million known coronavirus infections.

That’s according to a tally Monday by Johns Hopkins University. The grim milestone wasn’t entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents but its speed was stunning.

Read the full story here.

5:20 p.m. Coronavirus deaths rising in 30 US states amid winter surge

Coronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold.

As Americans observed a national holiday Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded with federal authorities to curtail travel from countries where new variants are spreading.

Referring to new versions detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, Cuomo said: “Stop those people from coming here.... Why are you allowing people to fly into this country and then it’s too late?”

Read the full story here.

5:05 p.m. Start the lower-risk high school sports: Chicago, most suburbs now in Tier 2

Chicago and most of the suburbs were moved into Tier 2 on Monday. That’s great news for lower-risk high school sports.

Per the Illinois High School Association’s announcement on Monday those teams can begin practice immediately and can play games “at a future day to be determined by the board.”

Lower-risk sports teams will be allowed to play games within their conference and region. Lower risk sports include boys and girls bowling, cheerleading, dance, girls gymnastics and boys swimming and diving and badminton.

Medium-risk sports in Tier 2 regions will be allowed to practice. There are no medium-risk sports on the IHSA’s current winter sports schedule. But on Friday, the IHSA said that spring and summer medium-risk sports at schools in Tier 2 can begin contact days on January 25. That would include soccer, volleyball and water polo.

Read Michael O’Brien’s full story here.

3:15 p.m. Illinois records smallest daily COVID-19 caseload in more than 3 weeks

State health officials on Monday reported 3,385 new and probable COVID-19 cases — its smallest daily caseload in over three weeks — as Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate continued to fall.

Health officials also announced an additional 50 coronavirus-related deaths, raising the statewide death toll to 18,258. More than half of Monday’s fatalities were reported in the Chicago area, including a Cook County man in his 30s.

Monday’s cases were found among 63,002 tests reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health over the last 24 hours, continuing an encouraging trend as the state continues to rebound from a record-setting resurgence in late November. The new cases brings the state’s total to 1,072,214 infections over the past 11 months.

The statewide seven-day positivity rate dropped for the 10th consecutive day, down to 5.9%, the lowest it’s been since Oct. 23. That’s a decline of nearly 2 percentage points from last Monday when the rate was 7.6%.

Read the full story here.

2:22 p.m. CTU continues plea to CPS for safe school reopenings: ‘This is about saving our lives’

Linda Perales got emotional Monday morning as she looked out at a crowd of about 150 Chicago Public Schools teachers and community members who gathered in Pilsen in solidarity with thousands of educators and staff who returned to schools earlier this month.

“Over 75% of parents have decided to stay home, so we know that what we’re doing, what we’re fighting for, is right,” said Perales, who choked back tears. “And [Mayor] Lori Lightfoot and [CPS CEO] Janice Jackson need to listen to us.”

Perales was one of the thousands of Chicago Public Schools teachers expected to return to the classroom with students earlier this month. But Perales, who teaches kindergarten through second grade as part of Corkery Elementary School’s cluster program, decided to stay home and continue to teach class online out of concern that CPS’ reopening plan wasn’t safe.

Subsequently, she and more than 140 other educators were restricted from teaching Jan. 11 until they returned to school buildings.

The Chicago Teachers Union and its supporters held a march on the South Side Monday morning as it continued the union’s monthslong plea for a safe reopening plan.

Read Madeline Kenney’s full story on the march here.

10:21 a.m. WHO chief lambasts vaccine profits, demands elderly go first

The World Health Organization chief on Monday lambasted drugmakers’ profits and vaccine inequalities, saying it’s “not right” that younger, healthier adults in wealthy countries get vaccinated against COVID-19 before older people or health care workers in poorer countries and charging that most vaccine makers have targeted locations where “profits are highest.”

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus kicked off WHO’s week-long executive board meeting — virtually from its headquarters in Geneva — by lamenting that one poor country received a mere 25 vaccine doses while over 39 million doses have been administered in nearly 50 richer nations.

“Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income country — not 25 million, not 25,000 — just 25. I need to be blunt: The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said. He did not specify the country, but a WHO spokeswoman identified it as Guinea.

“It’s right that all governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first,” he said. “But it’s not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries. There will be enough vaccine for everyone.”

Read the full Associated Press story here.

9:27 a.m. Illinois’ positivity rate falls for 9th consecutive day

Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate fell for a ninth consecutive day as another region’s coronavirus metrics improved enough to allow limited indoor dining.

The statewide seven-day positivity rate dropped to 6.1%, the lowest that figure has been since Oct. 25. The improvement of that metric over the last week-and-a-half is significant because experts use it to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading in the state. Last Sunday, Illinois’ seven-day average positivity rate was 7.9%.

As a result of the state’s encouraging trend, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has started to loosen business restrictions for some of the state’s 11 regions, including Region 2, which joined Region 5 Sunday as the only two regions that have moved into Tier 1 mitigation. That means bars and restaurants in Region 2, which covers 20 north central counties, and Region 5, which covers most of the south counties, can resume limited indoor service.

Other regions — including Chicago (Region 11) and its surrounding suburbs (Region 10) — are expected to move down to Tier 2 mitigation “in the coming days,” Pritzker said Friday. That will allow for larger venues, like casinos, museums and big-box retailers to increase their capacity, and bring back indoor fitness classes and recreation programs.

Read Madeline Kenney’s full story here.

New cases

• State health officials on Sunday announced 4,162 new and probable COVID-19 cases, which were found among the latest batch of 96,845 tests reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health in the last day.
• Health officials also reported an additional 29 virus-related deaths, including 24 recorded in the Chicago area over the last 24 hours.

Analysis & commentary

1:52 p.m. Stop making driver’s license renewals a pandemic risk

After months of practicing human avoidance, wearing a mask whenever outside, communicating with my children, grandchildren and friends only via the computer, and grocery shopping at times reserved only for seniors, you are requiring me to report to the nearest Driver Services Facility for road and vision testing before April 2021 when I turn 82 years old.

May I suggest that my testing (and all seniors with spotless driving records) be delayed until we are vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. That should happen during this year. I don’t need to remind you about the skewed mortality rate by people my age during this pandemic.

Hopefully, after I am vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and perhaps after your Driving Service employees are also vaccinated, we will be safe co-mingling with the mixture of people waiting, and often waiting for more than an hour, to be serviced at your Driver Service Facilities.

— Michael Ellman, Wilmette

Read more of our letters to the editor here.