How each county compares to state average for full COVID-19 vaccinations

As Illinois struggles to get more COVID-19 vaccine doses into arms with 1.53% of its 12.7 million population fully inoculated, most suburban counties - with the exception of DuPage - fall below that mark.

Hovering around the state average for the residents fully vaccinated are suburban Cook County with 1.51% or 37,483 people, and Will County with 1.5% or 10,357 people, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.

Lake County stands at 1.13% or 7,927 people fully inoculated, Kane County measured 1.16% or 6,208 people, and McHenry County hit 1.2% or 3,698 people.

DuPage County surpassed the state average with 1.94%, or 17,989 residents, fully vaccinated. Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.'s vaccines require two doses several weeks apart.

"While we recognize that there is not yet enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone who wants it yet, DuPage County is working hard to vaccinate as many people as possible as soon as we have the vaccine to do it," spokeswoman Stephanie Calvillo said.

Kane County Public Health Department spokesman Susan Stack said the agency is committed to inoculating health care and essential front line workers like police, following federal guidelines for prioritizing vaccinations.

"If they work in Kane County but live outside of the county, they are eligible to be vaccinated in Kane County. However, the state's numbers are based on residency," she noted.

The latest data comes amid a choppy week for COVID-19 news as Illinois reported its highest tally of shots administered - 58,357 - since inoculations began in mid-December. More and more vaccination sites opened, including a drive-through in Lake County and a clinic in Arlington Heights.

The state's seven-day average of daily vaccines administered is 38,738 doses. The number of fully vaccinated people in Illinois is 194,471.

Tempering the uptick is the fact that just 49% of the 1,800,575 vaccine doses allocated to Illinois - 887,845 doses - have gone into arms, but that's higher than the 42.6% a week ago. Of the 1.8 million doses, 496,100 are channeled through a federal partnership with pharmacies that have administered 131,401 shots.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the lag results partly from problems with the federal vaccination program, prompting pushback this week from Republican state senators who argued Pritzer is responsible.

But Pritzker also said he's reserving some vaccines to be sure no one misses their second dose, and he's not alone. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida also acknowledged stockpiling, the Miami Herald reported.

President Joe Biden is promising to increase vaccine shipments to states and provide a steady stream after a problematic rollout under his predecessor.

Asked about whether storing vaccines was necessary now, Sen. Dick Durbin said "the governor is trying to balance the situation he faces, and it's a bad situation."

Illinois is averaging about 120,000 doses a week and "that will not meet the needs of our state," Durbin said at a Friday briefing.

Cases of COVID-19 totaled 4,156 Friday with 71 more people dying from the respiratory disease

There were 2,735 COVID-19 patients in hospitals as of Thursday night.

Meanwhile, health experts are on alert with the first two U.S. cases of a more infectious South African variant of the COVID-19 virus diagnosed in South Carolina.

"What we have to hope is that it doesn't become the dominant strain like it did very quickly in South Africa," said Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital Medical Director Michael Bauer.

The South African variant "does appear to diminish some of the effectiveness of the current vaccine, which would not be a good thing," Bauer said.

"But keep in mind, when we were first developing vaccines ... I go back to (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director) Dr. Tony Fauci saying if we could get a vaccine that would be 60% or 65% effective, that would be wonderful. And then, poof! We come out with Pfizer and Moderna (vaccines) with over 90%" effectiveness.

The state's seven-day average positivity rate for COVID-19 cases sits at 4.3%.

Total virus infections come to 1,120,528 and 19,138 people have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Labs processed 111,057 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours.