Pritzker mandates COVID-19 vaccine boosters for long-term care workers
Workers at Illinois nursing homes and other longterm care facilities will be required to get a coronavirus vaccine booster dose by March 15, if they’re eligible for the shot, under an executive order Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued Friday.
The new requirement came as the Democratic governor extended his pandemic-era executive orders through March 5, just four days shy of the second anniversary of his initial COVID-19 disaster proclamation.
Pritzker issued an order in August for all health care workers, education employees and college students to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing, and he later added a requirement for day care workers.
Friday’s order is the first time the governor is requiring an additional dose beyond the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna regimens or the single shot from Johnson & Johnson.
A Pritzker spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the new directive applies only to workers in long-term care settings. But those facilities were hit the hardest during the initial waves of the pandemic, before vaccines were available.
While nearly 87% of nursing home workers in Illinois had completed their initial set of vaccinations as of Jan. 30, less than 36% had received an additional dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pritzker’s new order comes as the state’s fifth coronavirus wave, driven by the omicron variant, continues its rapid decline.
State health officials reported 10,070 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Friday, but the average number of cases over the past week fell to 8,627 per day, down from a peak of 32,501 per day during the week ending Jan. 12.
While case counts have become a less reliable indicator of the virus’s spread due to the prevalence of home testing and other factors, the strain on hospitals has eased in recent weeks as well.
As of Thursday night, there were 3,135 COVID-19 patients in Illinois hospitals, down from a record high of 7,380 on Jan. 12.
The average number of COVID-19 deaths per day has fallen below 100 for the first time since mid-January. With health officials on Friday reporting 62 additional fatalities, the statewide death toll stood at 31,296 since the pandemic began.
Speaking at an unrelated event in Chicago, Pritzker on Friday said he is encouraged by the improving numbers.
“The COVID metrics are going the right direction,” Pritzker said. “I’m very pleased about that. One of the reasons for that is because we’ve had the right kinds of mitigations. Illinois has done better than every other state in the Midwest (with) many of the mitigations, most especially getting people vaccinated.”
Illinois remains the only Midwestern state where people are required to wear masks indoors while in public, a mandate Pritzker said he would like to drop “as soon as we possibly can.”
“I am constantly listening to the doctors and scientists and encouraging them, ‘When can we do this? What’s the right time? What’s the right way to do it?’ ” he said in response to a question about when the requirement might end. “And so very hopeful we’ll be able to meet announcements about that.”