Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Tuesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other officials urged patience as the state Monday entered “phase 1b” of its vaccination program, opening up eligibility to those 65 and older and front-line workers such as employees in schools, day cares, post offices and grocery stores.

The mass vaccination effort has gotten off to a sluggish start in Illinois, with 692,763 doses administered as of Sunday out of nearly 1.7 million doses allocated to the state.

But a new mass vaccination site is opening in Tinley Park on Tuesday staffed by the Illinois National Guard. In addition, Walgreens, Jewel-Osco, Walmart, and suburban Cook County are scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments for eligible Chicago area residents.

The state has also launched a website where people can find vaccination locations and links to schedule appointments. The online sign-ups, however, come amid extremely limited doses of the vaccines, so appointments can be tough to come by.

Meanwhile, eight more cases of a highly contagious coronavirus variant have been identified in Illinois, state public health officials said Monday. A total of nine cases of the B.1.1.7. variant, first found in the United Kingdom, have now been confirmed in Illinois. All have been in Cook County, including in the city of Chicago.

Illinois health officials reported 2,944 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the lowest total since beginning of the fall surge in mid-October. The state also announced another 49 fatalities, bringing the statewide death toll to 18,798.

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Here’s what’s happening Tuesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:

7:23 a.m.: DuPage County’s COVID-19 testing site in Wheaton closed for the day due to snow; Villa Park facility open

The DuPage County Health Department announced that because of the heavy snowfall, its COVID-19 testing site near County Farm and Manchester roads in Wheaton would be closed on Tuesday. The department’s testing site at the Odeum Expo Center, at 1033 N. Villa Ave. in Villa Park, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The Wheaton facility is scheduled to reopen at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. —Chicago Tribune staff

7:15 a.m.: New Trier High School to double capacity of in-person learning, but officials say attendance unlikely to hit 50%

Despite the launch of an expanded reopening at New Trier High School this week, officials say they expect in-person student attendance to fall below the 50% threshold allowed under the new COVID-19 hybrid plan.

The start of New Trier’s 50% Hybrid Model, which was expected to begin on Tuesday, the first day of the second semester, will allow students with last names starting with A-K to attend in-person classes every week on Tuesday and Wednesday, while those with last names starting with L-Z will attend school in person on Thursday and Friday, officials said.

Among the myriad reasons student attendance was lower than the 25% capacity limit in the one-track model is some students who signed up for the hybrid model decided to take their classes online, without going through the formal process of declaring themselves all-remote, New Trier spokeswoman Niki Dizon said.

The lower than anticipated in-person student attendance is also due to some students self-quarantining after traveling during winter break, Dizon said.

Read more here. —Karen Ann Cullotta, Pioneer Press

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