State says camps, community events and factories the culprits in recent COVID-19 outbreak
Summer camps are behind the majority of recent COVID-19 outbreaks, Illinois Department of Public Health data showed Tuesday.
Nine of 33 outbreaks reported statewide, or 27%, occurred at camps in the last 30 days, including one in Chicago and another in a region made up of Lake and McHenry counties.
Other top causes of outbreaks were community events with six related outbreaks and factories or manufacturing facilities with five outbreaks. Community event outbreaks occurred in Chicago and in the region made up of DuPage and Kane counties.
An outbreak is defined as five or more COVID-19 infections connected to a common location.
Retail and sales settings caused two outbreaks, as did events at religious locations such as churches.
At an event Tuesday in Chicago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said his mask mandate indoors at schools is crucial now because the COVID-19 "delta variant is beginning to overtake parts of the country. ICU beds are now full, as I understand, in a number of states and, as you know, just because it's happening somewhere else does not mean it's not coming to Illinois."
New cases of COVID-19 numbered 2,950 Tuesday, and 10 more people died from the respiratory disease, the state reported.
"We see our cases going up, our hospitalizations go up and we're watching very carefully," Pritzker said.
On Monday, 17,438 more COVID-19 shots were administered. The seven-day average is 24,965.
The federal government has delivered 15,159,305 doses of vaccine to Illinois since distribution began in mid-December, and 13,393,429 shots have been administered.
So far, 6,625,415 people - or 52% of Illinois' 12.7 million population - have been fully vaccinated. Vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna require two doses several weeks apart.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 came to 1,488 as of Monday night.
The state's positivity rate for COVID-19 cases is 4.8% based on a seven-day average.
Total cases statewide stand at 1,447,161, and 23,542 Illinoisans have died since the pandemic began.
Labs processed 51,843 virus tests in the last 24 hours.