Folks from the health care sector packed into a conference room at the Sangamon County Department of Public Health Thursday morning for a gubernatorial proclamation: Illinois Public Health and Health Care Hero Day.

“With the historic and heroic efforts of our health care workers and institutions, with the perseverance and grit of the people of Illinois, and with 26 million vaccine doses administered, I couldn’t be happier to announce that all national and state covid-19-related emergency declarations have finally come to an end.”

Illinois recorded not quite 37,000 covid deaths.