Less than 1% of Illinois residents fully vaccinated
After a month of putting COVID-19 vaccine doses into arms, 83,065 people - less than 1% of Illinois' population of 12.7 million - have been fully inoculated against the respiratory disease as of Wednesday, according to state data.
It's a sobering number, but "the state of Illinois is vaccinating more than 25,000 people a day and we're looking forward to getting more vaccine shipped here as quickly as possible," said Gov. J.B. Pritzker's spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh.
COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. require two doses, weeks apart, to complete the inoculation.
So far, 384,658 doses have been administered in Illinois to health care workers and long-term care facility residents, a 15% increase from Monday's tally of 334,939.
Overall, 972,050 vaccine doses have been distributed to Illinois. Of those 268,525 are allocated for nursing homes, where 48,811 doses have been given through a federal program.
Illinois' seven-day average for shots in arms is 25,409 a day.
Pritzker and other governors have asked the federal government to release stockpiles of vaccines and President-elect Joe Biden has indicated his administration will respond, Abudayyeh said.
"We are moving as quickly as possible and are looking forward to the federal government providing more doses so we can move even faster in future phases of distribution," she said.
Pritkzer is expected to announce a timeline this week to jump into the second phase of vaccinations for people 65 and older plus essential workers whose jobs don't allow them to work from home during the pandemic.
New cases of COVID-19 numbered 5,862 Wednesday with 97 more deaths from the respiratory disease.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals was 3,642 as of Tuesday night.
The positivity rate of COVID-19 cases is 7.3% based on a seven-day average.
Labs reported 76,107 Illinois tests in the last 24 hours.
Total cases stand at 1,046,030 statewide with 17,840 deaths of the virus since the pandemic began.