One-fourth of Illinoisans 65 and older have received vaccine
More than one in four Illinois residents 65 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, new data released Friday by the Illinois Department of Public Health shows.
That compares to nearly one in 10 of the state's population overall that has received at least one shot. State health officials also announced Friday that a single-day record of 95,375 vaccinations were also recorded.
The news comes amid efforts to ramp up the pace of vaccinations in Illinois as eligibility expands amid tight supplies of vaccine. The state on Feb. 25 is opening vaccination to any adult with certain medical conditions, prompting an outcry from some over 65 who've struggled to get shots and leading authorities in suburban Cook County and Chicago to say they won't go along with that plan.
The vaccination data report on the IDPH website, dph.illinois.gov, shows 549,720 Illinoisans 65 and older have received at least one dose of the two-dose vaccine regimen. That includes 74,636 in that age group who are now considered fully vaccinated after receiving a second dose, or one in every 27 residents who are 65 and older.
According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2019, there are about 2,040,000 Illinoisans who are 65 or older.
The same data set shows nearly 10% of the state's population has received at least one dose of the vaccine by Thursday.
About a third of the state's 12.7 million residents are currently eligible to be vaccinated, not including an unknown number who will be added Feb. 25.
"It's not just an issue of equity; it's also the right thing to do," Pritzker said Friday during a tour of a community health clinic in the South suburbs. "By expanding the pool of those eligible, as our supplies are projected to increase, Illinois is advancing the goals of attaining equity, keeping those most at risk healthy and reducing new cases, hospitalizations and deaths."
Newly eligible will be people with cancer, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other lung diseases, diabetes, heart problems, weakened immunity after a solid organ transplant, obesity, pregnancy and sickle cell disease.
So far, providers in Illinois have administered 1,644,483 total vaccine inoculations, and 374,722 people have been fully vaccinated, according to IDPH records.
Of those doses, 62% went to people between the ages of 16 and 64, while 38% went to those 65 and older, IDPH records show. Health care workers, essential workers and residents of long-term care facilities now are eligible, along with those 65 and older.
The new data also shows that 66.1% of the vaccine doses went to white residents in Illinois. Black and Hispanic residents each received 7.3% of the doses. Illinois residents of Asian descent account for more than 5.1% of the vaccine doses, while Illinoisans who identify as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander received less than 1% of the doses, as did those who claim Native American or Native Alaskan heritage.
More than 11% of those receiving the vaccine did not provide a race or ethnicity, while 2.6% marked "other" when asked to choose a racial or ethnic option.
More than 1 million doses were administered to women, according to the IDPH data. Men received 590,185 of the doses. More than two-thirds of those who have been fully vaccinated are women, while less than a third are men.
Also Friday, state health officials announced 32 more Illinois residents have died from COVID-19 and 2,598 more infections were reported in one day.
That brings the state's death toll to 19,873 since the outbreak began, while 1,158,431 Illinoisans have been infected, according to IDPH records.
Hospitals statewide reported 1,915 patients being treated for the virus, while 437 of those hospitalized are in intensive care.
IDPH figures also show the state's case positivity rate is at 3.1%.