3rd anniversary of COVID-19 in Illinois

NORMAL, Ill. – Last week marked the 3rd anniversary of COVID-19’s arrival in Illinois. Since that time over four million Illinois citizens have been infected with the respiratory illness since it broke out in January of 2020 and over 36,000 have passed away due to complications with the illness.

The Illinois Department of Public Health Director, Sameer Vohra,  elaborated on how the pandemic impacted the health system of Illinois.

“We’ll look through to see if we have a vaccine every year that can be updated,” said Vohra. “I think it’s going to teach us different ways to continue to practice those precautions to keep us from getting sick, but I think it’s also a test for us to best understand what is the future of our public health system.”

Vohra also mentioned that the lessons learned from the pandemic will help them to slow the spread of the virus in the future, with air filtration systems, masks and correcting misinformation about COVID-19. It had also guided them in the response to the NPOX outbreak and in areas where Ebola is still around.

With the original date for the pandemic growing further away with each passing day, Vohra hopes Illinoisans will look towards the future.

 “I do think the future is incredibly bright for us in Illinois, but it’s really thinking through how we can work collectively together to build a public health system that makes every community in Illinois as healthy as it can be,” said Vohra.