COVID-19 hospitalizations up 16.8% from a week ago

State health officials Tuesday reported 1,627 COVID-19 patients were being treated in hospitals throughout Illinois.

Of those hospitalized, 325 were in intensive care, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Hospitalizations have increased by 16.8% from a week ago, IDPH figures show.

IDPH officials also reported another 20 deaths from the virus, as well as 3,005 new cases diagnosed.

That brings the state's death toll from the respiratory disease to 26,137, while 1,747,513 infections have been recorded statewide since the outbreak began.

More than 42% of all new cases reported Tuesday were from residents in suburban Cook County as well as DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties, according to IDPH data.

McHenry County, where nearly 10% of all test results returned Tuesday diagnosed a new case of COVID-19, has the highest seven-day case positivity rate among suburban counties, currently at 4.6%. The rate hadn't been that high there since early September, IDPH figures show.

The state's seven-day case positivity rate is at 2.8%. Case positivity is the percentage of test results that show a new infection, and a seven-day average is used to account for any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.

A week ago, the state's seven-day case positivity rate was at 2.2%.

Meanwhile, 51,241 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered statewide, IDPH records show.

Vaccine providers have now administered 16,485,223 doses throughout Illinois and are averaging 62,654 injections a day.

IDPH officials report 57.3% of the state's 12.7 million residents are now considered fully vaccinated.