Pediatrician and health care policy expert at SIU named director of Illinois Public Health Department
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday appointed a professor from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine to lead the state Department of Public Health as highly contagious coronavirus variants have emerged and made clear the pandemic is far from over.
Dr. Sameer Vohra, a pediatrician and founding chair of the SIU medical school’s Department of Population Science and Policy, will join the public health department on Aug. 1, the governor’s office said.
Vohra, who earned both medical and law degrees from SIU and a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago, oversees a department at SIU’s Springfield medical school that works to improve health outcomes in central and southern Illinois.
In a statement, Vohra said he is “humbled” by his appointment to lead the state’s public health department, a job where he’ll make $185,673 a year
“Governor Pritzker, along with the dedicated staff of IDPH, have served our state admirably during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Vohra’s appointment is subject to approval from the state Senate.
Vohra takes over the permanent director’s role from Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who became a fixture for many Illinois residents during the early days of the pandemic and left the post in March.
The public health department under her leadership was the subject of a scathing audit of the state’s response to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak in November 2020 that killed 36 veterans at a state-run home in LaSalle.
Reporting by the Better Government Association also raised questions about whether Ezike violated the state’s revolving-door law by taking a job as president and CEO of Sinai Hospital hospital system, a safety-net health care provider that receives state grants. An attorney for Ezike told the BGA that she sought legal counsel before accepting the new job.
Amaal Tokars, the department’s assistant director, has led the agency on an interim basis since Ezike’s departure and will remain as second in command.
Vohra steps into his new role as doctors are warning that two new strains of the coronavirus appear to be able more easily to evade antibody protection from prior infections.
As of last week, 28 of the state’s 102 counties, including suburban DuPage and Lake counties, met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition for high community levels of COVID-19, reflecting both the prevalence of cases and the strain on the local health care system. In places with a high community level, the CDC recommends masking in indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status.
Over the past week, the state has averaged nearly 5,000 new cases per day, the highest level in more than a month. At the height of the omicron surge in January, the state was averaging more than 32,000 daily cases.
Due to the proliferation of home testing, case counts are no longer the most reliable indicator of the prevalence of the virus, but the number of severe cases also has been rising of late. During the week ending Monday, the state averaged 145 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units per day, the highest level since early March.
The state Department of Veterans’ Affairs on Tuesday reported a recent rise in COVID-19 cases at the state-run veterans home in Quincy, where 16 residents and 10 staff members have come down with the virus. All the residents had received at least two vaccine doses and 11 of them had received all recommended boosters, according to the department.
Most are experiencing mild symptoms, though four residents were taken to the emergency room, the department said, with two remaining hospitalized Tuesday for unrelated conditions.
Since the start of the pandemic, 35 veterans at Quincy have died from COVID-19, with the most recent death recorded in mid-March, according to the department.
Last month, the state reported an outbreak at the veterans home in Manteno.
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