New cases, hospitalizations sneak up as COVID-19 vaccinations drop
State health officials today announced 13,135 more COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered throughout Illinois.
That brings the total number of vaccine doses administered in Illinois to 12,718,580, according to Illinois Department of Public Health figures.
IDPH officials are reporting 69.9% of the state's vaccine-eligible population of residents 12 and older have received at least one dose, while 54.5% of that group is considered fully vaccinated.
However, vaccine providers are averaging fewer than 20,000 inoculations a day during the past week, according to state data. That's the lowest level for that metric since early January when doses were in short supply. Currently, the state is reporting a vaccine supply of more than 1.5 million doses.
Meanwhile, health officials also reported six more COVID-19 deaths and 462 new cases of the disease.
Since the outset of the pandemic, COVID-19 has killed 23,278 people in Illinois and infected 1,394,235 residents, IDPH records show.
Currently, hospitals throughout the state are reporting 485 patients being treated for COVID-19, 101 of whom are in intensive care.
On Monday and Tuesday, hospitals across the state added 105 more COVID-19 patients than were being treated Sunday, IDPH records show.
IDPH data also shows several counties along the Missouri border are seeing a rapid uptick in new cases and hospitalizations.
Missouri has one of the highest new infection rates in the country along with one of the lowest vaccination rates, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures.
Much of the blame is placed on the growth of the Delta variant within the country. Researchers say it is the predominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S.
"We need everybody to get vaccinated. Seventy percent is a big milestone but it's not enough," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday at a bill signing at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. "The Delta variant is rising among the cases that are detected across the nation. We're not immune to it in Illinois. Just because it's a high number in California doesn't mean that it's not coming to Illinois."
The most recent IDPH figures show 208 Delta variant cases have been diagnosed throughout the state. That's a 20% increase in the number of those variant cases in a week. By comparison, cases from the other five variants combined grew by less than 0.4% in the past week.
The state's seven-day average case positivity rate is at 1.3%, a marked increase from just two weeks ago when it was half that. Case positivity is used by public health officials to track the level of infection within a certain population. It is the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests. A seven-day average is used to account for any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.
• Daily Herald staff writer Marni Pyke contributed to this report.