COVID-19 update: Illinois averaging 28,626 daily vaccine shots; 3,135 hospitalized

Illinois COVID-19 vaccine providers are averaging 28,626 doses a day over the past week, the lowest rate since late October 2021.

Since the Illinois Department of Public Health last updated statewide COVID-19 data on Wednesday, 42,190 more doses of the vaccine have been administered.

Providers have now administered 20,623,484 doses since the vaccines became available in December 2020.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks all Illinoisans' vaccine status, is reporting that 66.5% of the state's 12.7 million residents are fully vaccinated. That's the 18th best rate among the 50 states.

Of those fully vaccinated in Illinois, 47.7% have received a booster dose.

Among the vaccine-eligible population in the state who are 5 and older, 70.7% are fully vaccinated, according to the latest CDC records.

CDC data shows 64% of the U.S. population is now fully vaccinated, roughly the equivalent of 212.3 million Americans.

Meanwhile, IDPH officials are also reporting 3,135 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospitals statewide. That's down 30.8% from one week ago.

Of those hospitalized, 546 are in intensive care, down 31.8% from a week ago, records show.

Since Wednesday, 173 more Illinois residents have died from the virus, 111 deaths were reported Thursday and another 62 Friday.

That brings the state's death toll from COVID-19 to 31,296, according to IDPH records. Another 3,861 deaths are considered to be likely caused by the disease.

The CDC counts those probable deaths among the state's COVID-19 death toll.

Since the outset of the pandemic, 892,442 Americans have died of COVID-19, according to the most recent federal figures. Illinois accounts for 2.8% of them.

IDPH officials also reported 18,464 new cases since Wednesday, with 8,394 reported on Thursday and 10,070 reported Friday.

Illinois has now logged 2,957,563 COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

The state's seven-day case positivity rate is now at 5.8%, down from 9.4% a week ago. Case positivity is the percentage of test results that yield a new case of the disease. A seven-day average is used to account for any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.

During the most recent surge, the state's seven-day case positivity rate peaked at 15.2% on Jan. 7.