SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WREX) More Illinois residents are now eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Check out how many people have received the vaccine in your region with our COVID-19 Tracker
Starting today, March 22, higher education staff, government workers and media members are eligible to receive the vaccine.
Next Monday, March 29, even more residents will be able to receive the vaccine, including restaurant workers.
READ MORE: Additional essential workers in Illinois eligible for vaccine on Monday
Heres a look at who is eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine in Illinois:
You must sign-up to receive the vaccine and walk-ins will not be accepted.
To register, go to www.wchd.org or call 815-319-6705 for assistance over the phone.
As more vaccine becomes available in the coming weeks and months, we will continue to make sure we are reaching people who are at greater risk of exposure to the virus or from suffering severe illness due to COVID-19,said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. While we will continue to prioritize individuals who are 65 years and older, as well as health care workers and individuals with underlying medical conditions, we want to maintain our momentum going forward and continue to increase our march towards herd immunity.
The state also announced a modified reopening plan last week.
Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto returned to camp Sunday after sitting out with COVID-19, but when he might be able to play again is still uncertain.
The 37-year-old Votto left camp after a positive test on March 10 and has been isolated since. After being cleared by Major League Baseball, he was back at the Reds' spring training complex in Goodyear, Arizona, but will stay on the injured list until he's in game shape again.
"I feel good," the six-time All-Star said. "I'm glad to be back, and I'm looking forward to putting the uniform on and joining the team. I miss playing ball, I miss being part of the group."
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Votto, who declined to talk about his experience with the virus, couldn't say how long it will take him to be ready to play or whether he'll be in the lineup when the Reds open the season April 1 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Before the positive test he played in four spring training games, going 4-for-9 at the plate. Last season he hit .226 in 54 games, with 11 home runs and 22 RBIs.
"I'm looking forward to feeling sharp with the bat, of course, feeling like I'm dangerous, as I mentioned before, and making sure I'm healthy and strong and able to play as often as possible," he said. "That's the goal, and I felt like I was trending in that direction, so I have to get there and beyond."
Cincinnati is counting on Votto to continue the resurgence of success at the plate he showed at the end of last season.
"He's really had a good camp up until missing time," general manager Nick Krall said. "So we're excited to have him back, and it just adds another offensive threat to our lineup."
Despite coronavirus variants spreading and vaccinations still far from herd immunity, New York state is increasingly reopening certain industries and upping capacity thresholds for gatherings.
And remember "yellow zones"? Those are changing too.
Some public health experts question relaxing restrictions right now, but say focusing on reopening certain outdoor gatherings may be a good place to start.
The reopening protocols are dizzying and difficult to keep track of, so here's a guide of what to expect in the coming weeks. Some changes start Monday.
Keep in mind that the upcoming restrictions could change again as the state's progress on COVID-19 fluctuates.
March 22nd
Three major changes are happening.
One, indoor fitness classes can resume statewide at 33% capacity, with cleaning and contact tracing protocols and local health department inspections required. Mayor Bill de Blasio balked at the fitness class announcement from Governor Andrew Cuomo last week, accusing the governor of basing his decision on his current political troubles.
"Is this being done because of what the data and science is telling us, or is this being done for political reasons?" de Blasio asked during a press briefing on Thursday. "Because it sure as hell looks like a lot of these decisions are being made by the Governor because of his political needs."
Restrictions in parts of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queenscalled "yellow zones"will also be lifted after remaining under stricter public health guidelines than surrounding areas due to high COVID-19 rates. The cluster zones had been located in the East and West parts of the Bronx, Manhattan, as well as Kew Gardens and Forest Hills in Queens.
Yellow zones required that restaurants only hold four people at a table indoors and outdoors as well as keep houses of worship to 50% of the maximum capacity, among other measures. Business owners in the districts felt forgotten, as yellow zones hadn't been updated since late January, NY1 reported last week.
Gathering rules will also shift.
In public places, gatherings can rise from 50 people to 100 people indoors and 200 people outdoors beginning Monday.
At residences, outdoor gatherings will rise to 25 people, but shall remain at 10 people indoors.
Public high school students return to in-person classesbut a strict threshold for how many COVID-19 cases can shutter a school has resulted in dozens of school building closures even when in-person learning is supposedly open. As of Friday, 67 school buildings citywide had been closed for 24 hours and another 180 were currently closed for an extended period.
April 1st
Mets and Yankees fans can go to baseball games in person starting April 1st.
Stadiums that can hold 10,000 people or more can reopen at 20% capacity. That means around 8,500 people at Citi Field and nearly 11,000 people at Yankee Stadium could go to a socially distanced game.
But those attending have to show they've received both doses of the vaccine or proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test.
Other sports venues that have the capacity for 1,500 people inside and 2,500 outside must follow stricter guidance. The restrictions for those venues is set at 10% capacity indoors and 20% outdoors, with the same vaccination or negative test requirement as well.
Performing arts venues that hold at least 2,500 people outdoors can also reopen at 20% capacity with vaccination or negative test result required.
The governor's office said the state health department would "re-evaluate the testing and vaccination entry requirements in May."
April 2nd
Here's where it gets a little confusing.
Even though the governor announced performing arts venues can reopen at 20% capacity outdoors on the 1st, the guidelines are slightly different a day later without the vaccination or test requirement for arts and entertainment venues.
Arts and entertainment venues can reopen at 33% capacity with up to 100 people indoors and 200 people outdoors, the governor announced earlier this month.
That limit rises to 150 people indoors and 500 people outdoors if individuals show proof of a negative test result, which would be around 20% capacity of a 2,500-person outdoor venue, for instance.
Shakespeare in the Park will return under the venue guidelines on July 5th. Some indoor venue owners aren't so sure about reopening that soon. Following protocols around testing, keeping staff safe, and making capacity restrictions financially feasible are challenges with reopening.
April 5th
An 11 p.m. curfew for casinos, movie theaters, bowling alleys, billiards halls, and gyms and fitness centers will be lifted.
Of note: the 11 p.m. curfew for bars and restaurants as well as a midnight curfew for catered events will remain in effect, but the governor's office said last week that "both curfews will be evaluated in late April." The NYC Hospitality Alliance wants the curfew scrapped for other establishments, the Associated Press reported.
COVID-19 restrictions are frequently shifting as the state's progress on the pandemic changes. We'll update when new announcements are made. This article was last updated March 21st.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indias health ministry warned on Sunday that a huge gathering of devotees for a Hindu festival could send coronavirus cases surging, as the country recorded the most new infections in nearly four months.
The ministry said up to 40 people were testing positive for COVID-19 daily around the site of the weeks-long Mahakumbh that began this month and peaks in April in the Himalayan holy town of Haridwar, next to the Ganges.
The festival is held only once every 12 years. Organisers have said here more than 150 million visitors are expected, as many Hindus believe bathing in the river during this period absolves people of sins and bring salvation from the cycle of life and death.
In a letter to the state government of Uttarakhand, where Haridwar is located, the ministry told local authorities their daily coronavirus testing of 55,000 people in Haridwar was not enough given the large numbers of pilgrims expected, and that cases were already rising.
This positivity rate has the potential to rapidly turn into an upsurge in cases, given the expected large footfall during Kumbh, the ministry said in a statement, citing the letter.
Currently more than 12 states in India have shown a surge in COVID-19 cases during the past few weeks, and pilgrims expected to visit Haridwar during the Kumbh Mela could also be from these states.
Uttarakhands government says it has made mask-wearing mandatory for devotees, would distribute millions of masks for free and also keep sanitising public areas, apart from following rules laid down by the federal government.
India reported 43,846 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, with its richest state Maharashtra again accounting for about 60% of the infections.
Deaths rose by 197, the highest in more than two months, to 159,755, data from the health ministry showed.
Indias new COVID-19 cases peaked at nearly 100,000 a day in September, and had been falling steadily until late last month.
But now five states - Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh - account for nearly 78% of the new cases. Maharashtra, home to Indias financial capital Mumbai, alone reported 27,126 cases and 92 deaths.
As cases increase, Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has been criticised for exporting more vaccines than the number of people inoculated at home so far.
Under pressure to boost local supplies, the Serum Institute of India has told Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Morocco that shipments of further doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to them would be delayed.
India has so far donated 8 million doses and sold nearly 52 million doses to a total of 75 countries. It has administered more than 44 million doses since starting its immunisation campaign in the middle of January.
Reporting by Aftab Ahmed and Krishna N. Das; Editing by Kim Coghill
After a months-long investigation, the World Health Organization (WHO) has found that wildlife farms in China are likely the source of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These wildlife farms, many of them in or around the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, were likely supplying animals to vendors at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, where early cases of COVID-19 were discovered last year, Peter Daszak, a disease ecologist on the WHO team that traveled to China, told NPR. Some of these wild animals could have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 from bats in the area.
The WHO is expected to release its findings in a report in the coming weeks.
Related: 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history
In January, a WHO team of experts traveled to China to probe how the deadly pandemic, which has now infected more than 120 million people and killed 2.6 million worldwide, first started, Live Science previously reported. A rash of conspiracy theories have been spread about the origin of the virus, including that the virus escaped from a Wuhan lab. Last month, the WHO investigators dismissed that explanation.
The general consensus among scientists was that the coronavirus was circulating in bats and hopped to humans, likely through an intermediate species. That's exactly what the WHO investigations found: The virus likely passed from bats in southern China to animals in wildlife farms, and then to humans.
The wildlife farms are part of a project that the Chinese government has been promoting for 20 years to lift rural populations out of poverty and close the rural-urban divide, according to Daszak and NPR.
"They take exotic animals, like civets, porcupines, pangolins, raccoon dogs and bamboo rats, and they breed them in captivity," Daszak told NPR.
But in February 2020, China shut down those farms, likely because the Chinese government thought that they were part of the transmission pathway from bats to humans, Daszak said. The government sent out instructions to farmers about how to bury, kill or burn the animals in a way that wouldn't spread disease, Daszak told NPR.
Many of these farms breed animals that can carry coronaviruses, including civets, cats and pangolins. Most are located in or near the Yunnan province in southern China, where scientists previously discovered a bat virus that's 96% similar to SARS-CoV-2, according to NPR. The WHO still doesn't know what animal carried the virus from bats to humans.
"I do think that SARS-CoV-2 first got into people in South China. Its looking that way," Daszak told NPR. The WHO also found evidence that these wildlife farms were supplying vendors at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
"China closes that pathway down for a reason," Daszak said. Namely, that they likely thought that this was the most likely path of transmission, which is also what the WHO report will conclude, he added.
You can read the whole story on NPR.
Originally published on Live Science.
KINGSTON, N.Y. Ulster County listed more than 100 new cases of coronavirus over the weekend, bringing to 1,714 the number of active cases reported on the county's COVID-19 dashboard Sunday, up from the 1,613 reported Friday.
Editors note: In the interest of public safety, critical coronavirus coverage is being provided free to all readers. Support reporting like thiswith a subscription to the Freeman
Ulster County does not update its dashboard on Saturday.
The new cases bring the county's coronavirus positivity rate to 7.8 percent, up from 6.1 percent reported on Friday.
The city of Kingston had the most active cases of COVID-19, with 220 cases in the city as of Sunday. Since the beginning of the pandemic just over a year ago, Kingston has had 1,855 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 46 deaths. The town of Hardenburgh, in the western part of the county has no current cases of the virus and has reported only one confirmed case since last March.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the county has had 12,243 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 239 fatalities. Fifty-six have been in the town of Lloyd and 53 in the town of Ulster.
Dutchess County did not update its COVID-19 website on Sunday.
On Saturday, it reported 1,243 active cases of COVID-19, up from the 1,150 cases reported Friday a jump of 93. Hospitalizations dropped to 48 from 52.
Dutchess County also on Saturday reported one death from COVID-19, bringing the countys total death toll to 419 since the local coronavirus outbreak began last March.
Dutchess County has had 24,409 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and its latest seven-day average of positive test results is 4.39 percent.
For local coverage related to the coronavirus, go tobit.ly/DFCOVID19.
Many young people are at risk of pay 'scarring' in the years ahead following a coronavirus pandemic hit to incomes through job losses and furlough, according to a report.
The Resolution Foundation's research found that half of UK workers suffered a real-terms pay cut - when wage growth fails to keep pace with the rate of inflation - last year when COVID-19 forced large parts of the economy into extended periods of hibernation.
That was despite official figures which showed wage growth running at its highest level since 2008 towards the end of last year.
The report said the data, revealing average weekly earnings growth of 4.5%, had been distorted by the number of people in higher-paid roles getting more.
It said the effects of the government's furlough scheme, aimed at protecting jobs, and jobs lost during the crisis meant the 4.5% figure was "too good to be true".
It calculated that the median pay rise was 0.6% last autumn, a real-terms reduction of 0.2%, rising to 1.8% by the year's end but that was still the second lowest increase since mid-2013 when the effects of inflation were included.
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The research was released amid a continuing political row over a planned pandemic 1% pay award for nurses.
Foundation economist, Hannah Slaughter, said: "The economy experienced its biggest recession in over 300 years last year, with a third of private sector workers put on furlough at its peak, and yet somewhat implausibly pay growth reached its highest level in almost 20 years.
"Sadly, the story of bumper pay packets from official headline data is too good to be true.
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"In reality, half of all workers experienced a real-terms pay cut last autumn, with pay growth deteriorating most among those who have been hit hardest by the pandemic - the young, the low-paid and those working in social sectors like hospitality.
"This pay deterioration is particularly concerning for young workers as it risks scarring their pay for many years to come."
The foundation called for the government to prioritise "getting young people's pay and careers back on track", saying the support required would likely need to amount to more than was announced in the budget.
When the pandemic upended the economy last year, companies took a hard look at their advertising plans.
Oreos maker Mondelez International Inc. shifted money meant for TV commercials during March Madness basketball and the Summer Olympics into digital platforms. A hefty chunk went to Alphabet Inc.s Google, which offered data on what locked-down snack lovers were searching for.
Athleisure company Vuori Inc. more than tripled its spending on Facebook Inc., spotting a chance to juice sales of its sweatpants to people stuck at home. Office-furniture maker Steelcase Inc. built an operation to sell directly to workers and advertised aggressively on Amazon.com Inc.
The Big Three of digital advertisingGoogle, Facebook and Amazonalready dominated that sector going into 2020. The pandemic pushed them into command of the entire advertising economy. According to a provisional analysis by ad agency GroupM, the three tech titans for the first time collected the majority of all ad spending in the U.S. last year.
Beneath the shift are changes driven by the pandemic: more time spent on computer screens; more e-commerce; a jump in new-business formation, and a steady improvement in tech giants ability to demonstrate a return on ad investment.
AstraZeneca PLCs Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be safe and 79% effective in preventing symptomatic disease in widely anticipated U.S. clinical trials, providing a vote of confidence for the shot and a pathway for its authorization in the U.S.
The interim trial data showed the vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, was 80% effective in participants aged 65 and over, a group previous AstraZeneca trials lacked in large numbers. The shot was also found to be 100% effective in preventing serious illness and hospitalization across ages and ethnicities.
The company said it would continue to analyze the data and plans to request emergency authorization in the U.S. by mid-April.
If authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine could be available in May, joining three other authorized shots in Americas accelerating vaccine drive. AstraZeneca said it will have 30 million doses available immediately in the U.S., and another 20 million doses soon after.
The shot is already widely used elsewhere. The U.S. trials provide the largest-scale clinical tests yet of the vaccine amid widespread scrutiny of its efficacy and reports of serious blood-clotting issues in a very small number of people in Europe who received the shot. The U.S. trials identified no increased risk of serious blood clotting.
SALT LAKE CITY All Utah residents 16 and up are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as the state opens appointments to practically anyone starting Monday.
LINKS: Here's how to register for a COVID-19 vaccination in Utah
Beginning at 9 a.m., residents in the new eligibility group can make appointments, although none will be available until after April 4. Demand for vaccinations has been so high in Utah, appointments are booked solid through April 3.
Utah County got a jump on the rest of the state, opening appointments to those 16 and up last week. Even with the high demand, officials believe they are ready for the increased amount of people looking to be vaccinated.
"We feel quite confident about this and about the process that we've been preparing for," said Utah County Health Department spokesperson Aislynn Tolman-Hill. "We've been making improvements, really every day since we opened up vaccination in December."
WATCH: Utah races to get vaccines in arms ahead of COVID-19 'endgame'
There are now three mass vaccination centers in Utah County.
Utah is still set to drop its statewide mask mandate on April 10 as health metrics continue to improve. However, many businesses say they will continue to require customers to wear masks, and masks will still be required in schools and at gatherings with more than 50 people.
