All six counties surpassing Biden 70% goal for COVID-19 shots
All six counties in the Chicago region are surpassing President Joe Biden's goal for 70% of American adults to have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot before July 4, with DuPage County leading the pack.
However, the latest federal data showed DuPage won't reach its target of 80% of residents age 18 and older being fully vaccinated by Thursday.
"DuPage County has met and surpassed the White House July 4 vaccination goal, with 82% of adults vaccinated with at least one dose," health department Executive Director Karen Ayala said Wednesday. "Although the pace of vaccinations is slowing now that most adults have received their first vaccine dose, we continue seeing thousands of residents getting vaccinated every day."
Illinois stands at 71.6% of adults having one or more COVID-19 vaccine dose and the U.S. is at 66.2%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DuPage County is recording 82% of adults with one or more shots, followed by Lake with 78%, Cook with 75%, Kane with 72%, Will with 71%, and McHenry with 71%.
DuPage Chairman Dan Cronin in late April laid out an ambitious plan to reach the 80% fully vaccinated benchmark on July 1.
"We aimed high and our progress is exceptional," Cronin said in a statement.
In terms of fully vaccinated adults, DuPage is first among the six counties with 65%. Next is Lake with 60%, Cook with 58%, and McHenry, Kane and Will with 55%, the CDC reported.
"As we move forward, we remain committed to educating and encouraging our residents who are not yet vaccinated to get vaccinated as soon as possible," Ayala said.
The White House acknowledged last week the nation won't reach the 70% goal.
"Within a few weeks, we will be over 70% - 70% or over for the whole adult population," COVID-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients said June 22. When Biden took office Jan. 20 about six weeks after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine received emergency use authorization, 5% of Americans had received one or more shots, Zients said.
Statewide, new cases of COVID-19 reached 259 Wednesday, fewer than the seven-day average of nearly 264, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported. Six more people died from the respiratory disease.
On Tuesday, 30,010 more COVID-19 shots were administered. The seven-day average is 43,706. The federal government has delivered 14,227,695 doses of vaccine to Illinois since distribution began in mid-December and 12,594,182 shots have been administered.
So far, 6,164,779 people - 48.4% of Illinois' population - have been fully vaccinated. Vaccines manufactured by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. require two doses several weeks apart.
Illinois hospitals were treating 439 COVID-19 patients Tuesday night.
The state's seven-day average case positivity rate is 0.7%.