[News] U. of I.’s COVID control (LIVE UPDATES)

[_Happy boy]

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.

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.

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.