Chicago and Illinois Public Health officials are announcing the first case of the more infectious Brazil variant of COVID-19 has been detected in a Chicago resident. The infected person told contact tracers they hadn’t recently traveled outside Illinois. The P.1 strain was first found in Brazilian travelers who arrived in Tokyo in early January. It appeared in Minnesota later that month and has since been identified in several other states.
Meanwhile, State Public Health officials are reporting 1,068 new or probable cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, with 14 additional deaths. None of the deaths were in South Central Illinois. Two were in Madison County in the Metro-East and one in deep Southern Illinois’ Massac County.
The seven-day state positivity rate has dropped to 2.3-percent. The Southern Illinois Region positivity rate has dropped to 1.6-percent and Marion County’s rate remains at six-tenths of one percent.
Another 98,550 doses of vaccine were administered on Saturday. About 450 Marion County teachers and staff members received their second shot of vaccine in a clinic held Saturday at Centralia High School.
