Illinois averaging 10 COVID-19 deaths daily this week while hospitalizations level off

Fewer than 200 Illinois residents' COVID-19 deaths were reported in May, the lowest amount for any month since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 when 99 deaths were confirmed to be the result of a coronavirus infection.

State health officials reported 194 COVID-19 deaths in May, records show. That's the fewest recorded in one month since 220 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in July 2021.

Though cases and hospitalizations recently started to rise again, so have deaths.

The state is now averaging 10 COVID-19 deaths a day over the past week, according to Illinois Department of Public Health records released Friday. At the end of May, the state was averaging four deaths a day from the disease during the previous seven days.

Over the past week, the state recorded 73 more COVID-19 deaths, IDPH records show. Illinois has recorded 33,926 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began.

“The risk of dying from COVID-19 is becoming vanishingly small thanks to vaccination and the availability of outpatient antiviral treatments,” said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, medical director of infection control and prevention at Edward Hospital in Naperville. “This spring we are again seeing a slight increase in hospitalizations, but due to vaccinations most are mild and recovering quickly. There are far fewer hospitalizations that end up with pneumonia, respiratory failure or need ICU care.”

He noted that 36 Edward Hospital patients had died from COVID-19 in January and February, but just three in April and May.

“Oral antivirals and monoclonals are also helping keep many more high-risk patients with COVID-19 from getting sicker and needing the hospital,” Pinsky added. “The availability of Evusheld, for pre-exposure prophylaxis, can also put this group at low risk.”

IDPH officials reported fewer hospitalized COVID-19 patients Friday than one week ago, with 1,189 patients being treated currently. That's down from 1,227 a week ago.

However, 124 of those patients are in intensive care, up from the 114 in ICU beds a week ago.

Most of the Chicago area — Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties — remains at a high risk of COVID-19 transmission, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Will County dropped to a medium risk this week.

The CDC is reporting 69% of the state's 12.8 million residents are now fully vaccinated as well.

IDPH officials are also reporting 34,001 new infections over the past week. That brings the total number of infections statewide to 3,352,983 throughout the pandemic.

So far in June, the state is averaging 5,057 new cases a day compared to May when Illinois averaged 5,164 new cases a day.

However, public health officials have backed away from using case counts as a key metric for monitoring the spread of COVID-19 in the state because of the abundance of home testing kits that are not reported to IDPH.