Less than 8% of suburban residents have received new COVID-19 booster
Less than 8% of the suburban population has received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine booster that specifically targets the omicron variant and its many highly contagious offshoots.
According to data released Friday by the Illinois Department of Public Health, 445,843 doses of the omicron-specific bivalent booster shot have been administered to suburban residents. That's roughly 7.8% of the suburban population.
The new booster was released more than a month ago and public health officials were hoping for greater uptake as temperatures cool and people spend more time indoors, where transmission of the respiratory virus is more likely to occur.
Federal regulators recently approved versions of the new booster for children 5 and up. Previously, the Pfizer-BioNTech dose was available only to those 12 and older, while the Moderna version was available to anyone 18 and up.
A Pfizer version is now available for anyone 5 to 11, while Moderna's is available to anyone 6 to 17 as well. So far, 36,000 pediatric doses have been delivered statewide and another 38,000 are in transit, IDPH officials said.
"I was pleased to see the CDC expand updated COVID-19 vaccines to include children aged 5 to 11 years old," IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said. "This expansion comes at a critical time in Illinois and across the country, as we are seeing a sharp increase in severe childhood respiratory infections resulting in a shortage of available pediatric hospital beds."
IDPH officials were reporting 991 COVID-19 patients were currently being treated in hospitals throughout Illinois. Over the past week, Illinois hospitals were treating an average of 954 COVID-19 patients a day, that's up from a seven-day average of 915 hospitalized COVID-19 patients the week before.
Of those currently hospitalized with COVID-19, 112 are in ICU beds, one more than a week ago.
IDPH officials reported 52 more deaths over the past week, bringing the state's death toll from COVID-19 to 35,125 since the outset of the pandemic.
The state averaged 1,488 new cases a day over the past week as well. That's down from the 1,635 daily average of a week ago, records show.
Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, reported earlier in the week that unvaccinated residents in Chicago were nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized from a COVID-19 infection than those who were current with their vaccinations.
She also touted the efficacy of the new boosters.
"You for the first time are getting protection against ... the huge majority of the variants we're seeing," she said. "That's new and that's different from anything we had in the vaccines before."
Arwady said more than 144,000 doses of the new booster had been administered to Chicago residents, which is a little more than 5% of the city's population. She was particularly concerned about low turnout for the new booster among minority residents and younger individuals.
"Some of these numbers are really not good," Arwady said.
IDPH officials report Lake County has the highest percentage of its population inoculated with the new bivalent booster shot at 9%. In DuPage County, 8.6% of the residents have received the new booster.
Among suburban Cook County residents, 8.1% have received the bivalent booster, IDPH records show. That figure is 6.7% in McHenry County, 6.6% in Kane County and just 5.8% among the Will County population.
Officials at the Cook County Department of Public Health have acknowledged concern about the low uptake of the new booster and are planning launch a campaign focused on more vulnerable communities within the suburban portion of the county. They are also partnering with other organizations to schedule vaccination events.
"Give yourself and your loved ones a boost this fall by getting your COVID-19 vaccine bivalent booster as soon as you are eligible," said CCDPH Chief Operating Officer Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck. "The updated booster protects against the initial virus, the more transmissible omicron strains and possibly other new emerging variants as well."
Less than 900,000 doses of the new booster have been administered statewide, IDPH records show. Appointments for the bivalent booster are available at pharmacies, hospitals and other health care providers, which can be found at vaccines.gov.