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COVID-19 has killed 1 of every 500 Illinois residents

COVID-19 has now killed one in every 500 of Illinois' 12.7 million residents.

The state surpassed that grim milestone recently as deaths from the virus now stand at 25,470, according to Illinois Department of Public Health records.

That includes 63 more COVID-19 deaths reported over the past three days by the state public health agency.

Illinois is now one of 29 states in the country where the death rate from the respiratory disease is at least one in every 500 residents.

“It's an unthinkable tragedy, but thank goodness for the measures so many Illinoisans have taken to protect themselves and others,” said Dr. Emily Landon, head of the University of Chicago's infectious disease prevention and control program. “Imagine how much worse it could have been. Still, some of those lives were lost because of a selfish, anti-community movement that led to deaths amongst its own membership, and spread hate and (COVID-19) to those who were doing everything they could to prevent spread of this deadly disease.

“I hope we can all take time to reflect on what it means to lose so many loved ones and consider our priorities and our responsibilities toward one another as we make our plans for the holiday season,” Landon said.

According to data from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Census Bureau, Mississippi's rate is the worst in the nation, with COVID-19 claiming one of every 299 residents.

Vermont is reporting just one in every 1,906 residents has died from COVID-19. Vermont also has the highest percentage of its population fully vaccinated among the 50 states, CDC records show.

“It is not a coincidence,” said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, medical director of infection control and prevention at Edward Hospital in Naperville. “It's a clear cause and effect, and the data clearly bears that out. The chances of you dying from COVID if you're fully vaccinated is (one-20th of the risk) if you're not vaccinated.”

Nationally, the virus has killed one in every 458 U.S. residents. The CDC includes deaths probably caused by COVID-19 in its mortality figures.

IDPH officials believe 2,798 more deaths were likely caused by COVID-19 but don't have positive test results to confirm the infections.

Since Friday, when IDPH last updated its COVID-19 data website, 5,498 new cases were diagnosed, bringing the total number of infections diagnosed statewide to 1,671,275 since the start of the pandemic.

Hospitals in Illinois are treating 1,419 COVID-19 patients, 338 of whom are in intensive care, according to IDPH figures.

Hospitalizations have dropped by 131 patients since Friday, records show.

The state's seven-day case positivity rate is at 2.0%, the same as it was three days ago. The rate is calculated using the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests. A seven-day average is used to account for any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.

IDPH officials also reported 81,045 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered over the past three days.

Providers have administered 15,075,110 first, second and booster doses of the vaccine statewide, according to IDPH figures.

IDPH is also reporting 56.3% of the state's population is now fully vaccinated.

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