ALL 16-OVER ILLINOISANS OUTSIDE CHICAGO TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR VACCINE ON APRIL 12: SOURCES
Gov. J.B. Pritzker plans to expand coronavirus vaccine eligibility to all Illinois residents over 16 — except Chicagoans — starting April 12, and initiate a new “bridge” phase as part of his plan to reopen the state, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The governor is expected to make the announcement at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Thompson Center.
Chicago receives its own federal vaccine allotment and sets its own eligibility rules. On April 12, the only requirement for the state’s non-Chicagoans will be that they be over the age of 16.
President Joe Biden last week urged states to make all adults eligible for vaccines by May 1, a deadline Pritzker predicted the state would beat.
The bridged reopening Pritzker is planning to announce on Thursday will allow for “a gradual increase in capacity limitations” as the state vaccinates more people and continues to monitor case numbers, one source said.
All of the state’s regions will move into the intermediate phase — there will be additional metrics to meet, involving new case numbers and the state’s positivity rate, to get to Phase 5, which is a full reopening, the source said. The state has been in Phase 4 since last summer.
Pritzker said Wednesday he expects to unveil a plan this week that is “not only healthy for everybody, but also good for the economy.”
Part of the challenge to lifting restrictions will be handling threats posed by newer, faster spreading coronavirus variants — but the governor suggested that was not an insurmountable hurdle to reopening.
“Let me be clear to everybody,” the governor said at a news conference in downstate Decatur. “I am more optimistic today than I have ever been throughout this pandemic, about where we are going and getting to the end of the pandemic.”
During an earlier stop in downstate Lincoln, Pritzker said he had talked to a wide variety of experts in crafting the plan.
“Let me just say, we’re working with industry leaders, we’re working with our doctors at [the Illinois Department of Public Health] as well as other experts in the state to make sure that the phased opening — reopening — is not only healthy for everybody, but also good for the economy as we move it forward,” Pritzker said at an unrelated morning news conference.
Wednesday was the first time Pritzker addressed reopening the state since his public health chief revealed a plan was imminent.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, broke the news about the reopening plan Monday during an Illinois Senate Health Committee hearing. She told senators a plan was in the works, news the governor’s spokeswoman quickly confirmed but did not elaborate on.
During Monday’s hearing, Ezike said masks would continue to be “a mainstay” as the state begins its reopening process.