ICU COVID-19 patients drop below 1,000 for first time this year

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care has dropped below 1,000 for the first time in 2022.

Illinois Department of Public Health officials are reporting 972 of the 6,054 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Friday were in an ICU bed.

The last time there were fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 patients taking up ICU beds statewide was Dec. 28, records show.

COVID-19 ICU patients are down 15.3% from a week ago, while all hospitalizations are down 17.3% over the past week.

IDPH officials are also reporting 137 more COVID-19 deaths, as well as 40,642 new infections.

Since the outbreak began, 29,845 Illinois residents have died from the virus and 2,773,362 cases have been diagnosed, records show.

The state's seven-day case positivity rate is at 11.9%, up slightly from the day before. Case positivity is the percentage of test results that yield a new infection. A seven-day average is used to account for any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.

IDPH officials also are reporting 47,279 more COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois.

That brings the total number of vaccine doses administered statewide to 20,207,132.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 65.6% of the state's 12.7 million residents are vaccinated with both doses.

Of those, CDC figures show 44.8% have received a booster dose.