Illinois surpasses 9 million vaccine shots

Illinois vaccine providers have administered nearly 9.05 million shots against COVID-19 after giving 100,823 daily doses on average over the past week, state health officials said.

The latest daily average is nearly 18% fewer doses a day than the state was averaging a week ago, which reflects plateauing demand, health officials say.

Statewide, 3.9 million people are considered fully vaccinated, according to IDPH records. That's just over 30% of the population.

At the same time, IDPH officials on Wednesday reported 33 more COVID-19 deaths and 2,728 new cases of the disease.

The state's death toll from the virus is now at 21,891, while 1,328,454 residents have been infected since the outset of the pandemic.

Among those who have died are 32 people considered fully vaccinated, according to an IDPH update.

So-called “breakthrough” cases are defined as someone “who tests positive for COVID-19 at least 14 days after being fully vaccinated and did not test positive in the previous 45 days,” IDPH officials said.

Breakthrough cases have also resulted in 97 hospitalizations of residents considered fully vaccinated, IDPH officials reported.

That translates to one of every 40,202 fully vaccinated individuals sickened by the virus to the point of requiring hospitalization, usually because of trouble breathing or low blood-oxygen levels, according to medical officials.

Illinois is averaging 2,700 new cases a day over the past week, IDPH records show. That's 8.3% fewer daily cases on average than a week ago.

Statewide, hospitals are treating 2,154 COVID-19 patients, with 502 of them in intensive care, according to IDPH figures.

Hospitalizations have begun declining after a recent uptick. State records show hospitals are currently averaging 2.2% fewer patients each day than they were a week ago.

The state's seven-day case positivity rate is at 3.4%, a slight decline from the previous day. Two and a half weeks ago, the rate had been as high as 4.4%. Case positivity is the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests.

Nearly all of the more than 11 million vaccine doses received by providers in Illinois are making it into people's arms. State health officials say 8,062 doses have had to be discarded for various quality-control reasons.