Where are the most vaccinated kids? DuPage leads in COVID-19 shots, followed by Lake
DuPage County leads the state in children who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, followed by Lake County, Illinois Department of Public Health data showed Wednesday.
Just over 43% of Lake County kids ages 5 to 11 have received two shots of Pfizer's vaccine, compared with 45% in DuPage. Third-highest was Chicago with 41.3% of 5- to 11-year-olds fully inoculated.
Children still lag adults in statewide tallies, with 32.1% of the younger demographic fully vaccinated compared to 70.6% of people ages 18 to 64, according to IDPH records. Authorized for emergency use last fall, Pfizer's shot is the only vaccine approved in the U.S. for those 5 to 11 years old.
The suburbs number among the top 11 counties in Illinois for pediatric vaccinations. In Cook County, 37.6% of kids are fully vaccinated. Will County is at 31.1%. McHenry County is at 30.8%. Kane County is at 30%.
Meanwhile, vaccination rates for children in downstate Hardin and Alexander counties are less than 1%, the lowest in Illinois.
The state's seven-day average case positivity rate hit 1.9% Wednesday, dipping below 2% for the first time since Oct. 31, as the country climbs out of the winter omicron surge.
New cases of COVID-19 reached 2,733 with 86 more people dying from the respiratory disease, the IDPH reported. The seven-day average for new daily infections is 2,100.
Illinois hospitals were treating 1,232 COVID-19 patients Tuesday night, compared to the seven-day average of 1,412.
Total cases statewide stand at 3,022,684 and 32,517 Illinoisans have died since the pandemic began.
On Tuesday, 17,573 more COVID-19 shots were administered. The seven-day average is 18,250.
So far, 8,521,005 people have been fully vaccinated, about 67.2% of Illinois' 12.7 million residents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC defines fully vaccinated as two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson's.
Of those people who are fully vaccinated, 48.9% have received a booster shot.
The federal government has delivered 23,759,825 doses of vaccine to Illinois since distribution began in mid-December, 2020, and 21,042,269 shots have been administered.
Labs processed 86,515 virus tests in the last 24 hours.