Illinois' COVID-19 case positivity at lowest point since mid-July
A key COVID-19 metric has dropped to its lowest level in more than three months, and hospitalizations from the respiratory illness are down more than 14% from a week ago.
Illinois Department of Public Health data released Wednesday shows the state's seven-day case positivity level at 1.9%, the lowest it's been since July 16. Case positivity is the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests and is one of the metrics used by health officials to determine the level of precautions necessary to avoid more cases.
IDPH officials also reported 1,382 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 14.4% fewer than just one week ago.
Of those hospitalized, 350 are in intensive care.
Meanwhile, IDPH officials also reported 36 more COVID-19 deaths, as well as 2,447 new cases of the disease.
That brings the state's death toll from the virus to 25,527, while 1,675,793 infections have been recorded in Illinois since the outset of the pandemic.
IDPH officials are also reporting 33,353 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
To date, Illinois vaccine providers have administered 15,132,881 first, second and booster doses of the vaccine to Illinois residents and workers.
IDPH figures show 56.4% of the state's 12.7 million residents are fully vaccinated.
DuPage County still leads the state with the highest percentage of the population fully vaccinated at 65.7%.
Elsewhere in the suburbs, IDPH reports 61.9% of the population in the suburban portion of Cook County is fully vaccinated, followed by Lake County at 58.7%, McHenry County at 57.1%, Will County at 57% and Kane County at 56.9%.
In all, IDPH is reporting 3,428,988 residents of suburban Cook County and the five collar counties are now fully vaccinated, or 47.7% of all fully vaccinated Illinois residents.
The daily number of new cases of COVID-19 continues to shrink in the suburbs, except for McHenry County. Suburban Cook County is averaging 353 new cases a day over the past week, which is 14.1% fewer than one week ago, according to IDPH records.
DuPage County is averaging 140 new cases a day over the last week, an 8.5% drop from a week ago.
Lake County is seeing an average of 93 new cases a day over the past seven days, which amounts to a 10.6% drop from a week ago.
Will County is averaging 122 new cases a day during the previous seven days, a 15.9% decline since last week.
Kane County's seven-day new case average is at 80, which is 10.1% fewer than a week ago.
McHenry County is averaging 57 new cases a day over the last week, but that's up 5.5% from a week ago.