COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations more than doubled in November
COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations more than doubled from October to November, state data showed Tuesday, as officials reported Illinois health care workers could start getting virus vaccines as soon as the third week of December.
If approved by the Centers for Disease Control, Illinois could receive about 109,000 doses of vaccines this month from Pfizer or Moderna that would vaccinate 54,500 people because two shots are required.
“Those vaccines, because of the limited numbers, will go ... to health care workers and, if there's enough, to those in long-term care facilities — the staff and residents,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday at a briefing.
“Our anticipation at the moment, is those numbers are small enough they won't go beyond those two populations — it may not even get to all health care workers even in that very first shipment.”
The vaccine news comes as new cases of COVID-19 spiked by 12,542 Tuesday — the highest since Nov. 20 with 13,012 infections — and 125 more people died of the respiratory disease, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
The increase comes after Thanksgiving-related lows of infections and testing. From Friday through Monday, new cases averaged 7,204 a day, and the number of tests averaged 71,476. In comparison, Illinois labs processed 116,081 tests in the last 24 hours.
“We know that we aren't gong to see the bulk of the impact from Thanksgiving in our data quite yet,” Pritzker said, “just as it took time to see the impact of the Fourth of July and Labor Day celebrations.”
Virus deaths rose by 136% from Oct. 30 to Nov. 30, from average of 35.6 people per day in October to 84 per day last month.
Hospitalizations also escalated, shifting from an average of nearly 2,166 people in October to about 5,280 in November, a 143.8% increase.
Cases catapulted upward by 182% month over month, but that data also includes the state's new practice, which started in mid-November, of including possible COVID-19 infections with totals. Daily cases grew from an average 3,637.5 in October to 10,277 in November, indicative of a fall surge experts predict will continue into winter.
In a separate briefing, Chicago Department of Public Health leaders reported the city expects to start dispensing an initial allocation of 20,000 to 25,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to health care workers as soon as the third week of December.
There are many unknowns about the efficacy of the vaccines and the willingness of the public to be inoculated, city health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. But “probably once we're into the second half of the year, we're hopeful there will be wide availability of the vaccine in many settings,” she said.
In Chicago, after distributions to health care workers, nursing homes, essential workers and those at higher risk of COVID-19, the rest of the population should be able to be vaccinated at outpatient clinics, private practices, federally qualified health centers and pharmacies, including their own doctors, Arwady said.
Pritzker noted vaccines coming this month are for adults only.
The state's virus positivity rate stands at 10.4% based on a seven-day average, the highest since Nov. 25, when it hit 10.6%.
Illinois hospitals reported 5,835 COVID-19 patients Monday night. That's lower than the seven-day average of 5,901.6 but still surpasses peaks in the spring as health experts warn that hospitals might reach capacity.
The total infections in Illinois since the pandemic began has reached 738,846 and deaths total 12,403.