- Credibility:
CHICAGO — Johnson & Johnson will push for the federal government to OK booster shots of its coronavirus vaccine, according to a new report.
The company will ask regulators this week to authorize the booster shot, according to a New York Times report. The move comes just weeks after officials authorized booster shots for people who got the Pfizer vaccine.
The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled an Oct. 15 meeting for its advisory committee to discuss possible Johnson & Johnson boosters.
Officials hope the booster shots can increase the level of protection people have, though they’ve said the shots remain largely effective at preventing serious illness and death.
For now, only Pfizer boosters have been approved, and only for people who are 65 or older, people with underlying medical conditions and certain frontline workers. Those people must wait at least six months after their second Pfizer shot before getting a booster.
People can get booster shots through their primary care provider and at CVS pharmacies.
Vaccinations:
• In Illinois, about 7 million people — or 55.53 percent of the state’s 12.7 million people — have gotten all their COVID-19 vaccine shots, according to state data.
• Across the state, 30,136 vaccine doses are being administered per day, based on a seven-day rolling average.
• Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 14,689,384 vaccine doses of the 17,381,435 provided to them.
• City data shows more than 1.55 million Chicagoans — or 58 percent of all residents — are fully vaccinated, and 63.2 percent of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot.
Everyone 12 and older is eligible to get vaccinated in Chicago.
COVID-19 vaccinations are free and do not require insurance. Anyone can call the city’s coronavirus hotline at 312-746-4835 to get more information on how and where to get vaccinated in their community.
The numbers:
• Fifty-nine Illinoisans were reported dead from COVID-19 since Friday.
• At least 25,076 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 2,709 deaths are probably related to the virus, according to the state.
• The state reported 7,139 cases since Friday. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 1,638,003.
• Since Friday, 362,239 tests were reported statewide. In all, 32,397,149 tests have been reported in Illinois.
• Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate was at 2.2 percent. The figure represents the percentage of people testing positive among recent tests. It was at 2.2 percent Friday.
• Illinois’ seven-day test positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that were positive, was at 2.7 percent. It was at 2.8 percent Friday.
• As of Sunday night, 412 people with COVID-19 were in the ICU and 234 people with COVID-19 were using ventilators in Illinois.
• In Chicago, six deaths were reported since Friday. There have been at least 5,785 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago. The city is seeing an average of five deaths per day, up 35 percent from a week ago.
• Chicago has 991 had confirmed cases reported since Friday. It’s had a total of 318,604 confirmed cases. An average of 354 confirmed cases are being reported per day, a 14 percent decrease from the week prior.
• Testing in Chicago has increased 1 percent since a week ago.
• Chicago’s positivity rate was at 2.4 percent, down from 2.8 percent the week prior.
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