Illinois averaging 80% more COVID-19 cases than a week ago
State health officials Friday reported 18,720 more COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered throughout Illinois.
That brings the total number of doses administered by providers statewide to 13,056,857, according to Illinois Department of Public Health figures.
Nearly 72% of the vaccine-eligible population of residents 12 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 55.9% are considered fully vaccinated.
Vaccine providers are averaging just 19,928 inoculations a day during the past week, though.
IDPH officials also reported Friday another three COVID-19 deaths, along with 1,470 new cases of infection.
The state is averaging 80% more new cases a day this week than it was a week ago, state health figures show. Illinois averaged more than 1,100 new cases a day during the past seven days. The state was averaging just 636 new cases a day a week ago.
The state's death toll from the virus is now at 23,401, while 1,407,929 Illinois residents have tested positive since testing began last year.
Illinois hospitals are treating 670 COVID-19 patients, 135 of whom are in intensive care.
IDPH does not report how many of those hospitalized are fully vaccinated each day, nor does it report how many of the state's new cases each day were diagnosed in fully vaccinated individuals.
However, when asked for figures about infection metrics of fully vaccinated residents, IDPH officials reported that in June officials there noted 87% of the new cases and hospitalizations were unvaccinated individuals. Among those who died from COVID-19 in June, 92% were unvaccinated.
"There are data limitations for identifying vaccinated versus unvaccinated cases, hospitalizations and deaths, which includes trying to match records across different systems," said IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold. "The vast majority of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths are among unvaccinated. COVID-19 vaccines are effective."
The state's seven-day case positivity rate is at 3.3%, up from 1.9% a week ago. Case positivity allows health officials to track the level of infection within a certain population. The rate is the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests. A seven-day average is used to smooth any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.
DuPage County is one of several counties put on alert for an increase of COVID-19 risk. State officials issued the alert for the suburban county because of the spike in hospital admissions and emergency room visits for COVID-like symptoms.
The rest of the counties under warnings are mainly to the south and adjacent to Missouri, which is experiencing a significant surge in cases as it has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.
Two of the 11 health regions monitored by IDPH are on the verge of having mitigation restrictions reinstated. The southernmost Region 5 is nearing the 8% test positivity rate but already has fewer than 20% of the area's ICU beds available, while the average number of COVID-19 patients has increased for five of the past 10 days. Region 4, which consists of seven counties near St. Louis, is above the 8% test positivity limit and has seen COVID-19 patients in hospitals increase nine of the past 10 days. The region is reporting 28% of its ICU beds remain available, though.
None of the other nine health regions has a test positivity rate above 5.7%, with most below 4%, according to IDPH figures.