The 217 Today Podcast

217 Today: Wednesday December 23, 2020

Olivia Butts
 

Courtesy of Memorial Behavioral Health

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Wednesday December 23, 2020

Today’s headlines:

  • It’s still the early days for distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine, and so far only frontline healthcare workers have been vaccinated in Illinois, but health officials are trying to build public conficence in the vaccine.

  • The state of Illinois reported more than 6,200 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday and 116 additional deaths from the disease.

  • U.S. Senator Dick Durbin says he believes the issue of direct pandemic relief aid for states, cities, and small units of government will come back under the new Biden administration.

  • A key Illinois lawmaker says a planned state crackdown on understaffed nursing homes is on hold again.

  • The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District says anyone who attended the Rest-Oration Church on South Philo Road in Urbana between December 12th and yesterday could have been exposed to COVID-19.

In today’s deep dive, some emergency rooms report seeing a surge of patients in mental health crisis during the pandemic. We learn about one health system's solution to that problem.

217 Today is produced by Olivia Butts and hosted by Brian Moline. Reporting today contributed by Hannah Meisel, Charlie Schlenker, Chip Mitchell and Christine Herman.