Posted inState News

Head of Illinois Department of Public Health stepping down, governor announces

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of Illinois’ health department and face of regular COVID-19 updates, will be stepping down from her post this month, Gov. JB Pritzker announced. Pritzker made the announcement Tuesday afternoon during a COVID-19 press conference at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “For over three years, Dr. Ngozi Ezike has served […]

Posted inState News

State officials celebrate 1-year anniversary of first COVID-19 vaccinations in Illinois, urge residents to get booster

State officials are celebrating the one-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 vaccinations in Illinois and are urging fully-vaccinated residents to receive their booster shots. On December 15, 2020, around 450 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines were administered to health care workers after the first doses were delivered to the state the day before. Since […]

Posted inState News

Health department announces first case of Omicron COVID-19 variant in Illinois

Health officials on Tuesday announced Illinois’ first case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in a fully vaccinated resident. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) said Illinois’ first known COVID-19 case caused by the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) was identified in a Chicago resident. The Chicago resident came in […]

Posted inState News

Illinois keeping mask mandate in place, top health official acknowledges ‘a lot’ of non-compliance

Illinois’ top health official acknowledged “a lot of unmasked indoor gatherings” are likely causing an increase in new COVID-19 cases, but said the state’s mask mandate will remain in place. Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike was interviewed by downstate news station WGEM last week about the increase in new COVID-19 cases […]