Illinois surpasses 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 dropped over the holiday weekend, while Illinois vaccine providers have now administered more than 20 million doses to residents and workers since they first became available in December 2020.
That's according to recently updated figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health released Tuesday that also show 202,520 more doses were administered since Friday, the last time the state health agency updated vaccination administration data.
Vaccine providers in Illinois have now administered 20,054,921 doses, according to IDPH records.
IDPH officials also report vaccine providers are averaging 47,010 inoculations a day over the past week.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8,250,044 Illinois residents are considered fully vaccinated. That accounts for 65.1% of the state's 12.7 million residents. These figures include residents who were vaccinated in other states.
Of those fully vaccinated, 43.6% have received a booster dose, CDC records show.
Statewide, the CDC reports far northwestern Jo Daviess County has the highest percentage of its population fully vaccinated, at 75.2%. Lake County has the second-highest fully vaccinated rate, at 74.7%. DuPage County is third at 74.1%.
Elsewhere, the CDC reports 68.3% of Cook County residents, including Chicago, are fully vaccinated. In Kane County, 63.4% of residents are fully vaccinated, 64.1% in McHenry County and 64.3% in Will County.
In an effort to increase vaccination figures, the Cook County Health Department is reopening several mass vaccination sites, including a spot in Des Plaines at the former Kmart at 1155 E. Oakton St. beginning Saturday. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
"While we have sufficient vaccine supply across Cook County, we know that physicians' offices and pharmacies are not staffed to accommodate the significant demand for COVID vaccinations," Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said at last week's reopening announcement of the three mass vaccination sites. "With support from the state, we look forward to creating broader access to vaccination for individuals across the county."
The federal government also unveiled a free COVID-19 home testing kit delivery website Tuesday via the U.S. Postal Service that will begin shipping four tests to homes whose residents order them beginning later this month. The website address is special.usps.com/testkits.
IDPH officials also reported an 8.5% drop in COVID-19 hospitalizations since Friday.
According to the health agency's figures released Tuesday, there are 6,695 patients being treated for the virus in hospitals throughout Illinois. That's 625 fewer than Friday's head count.
Of those hospitalized, 1,120 are in intensive care, a 2.4% drop from Friday's tally.
IDPH officials also reported 135 more COVID-19 deaths over the previous four days, bringing the state's death toll from the virus to 29,350.
Another 93,343 new cases were also diagnosed since Friday, which means the state has recorded 2,682,983 COVID-19 infections since the outset of the pandemic.
The state's seven-day case positivity rate climbed to 12.2% from 10.6% on Friday. Case positivity is the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests, and a seven-day average is used to account for any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.