Coronavirus In Illinois: 4,979 New COVID-19 Cases, 123 New Deaths, 2nd Most Daily Vaccinations
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois' average COVID-19 infection rate continues to improve, slowly but steadily, as more regions of the state move towards allowing indoor dining, and officials hope to further ramp up vaccinations in the coming weeks.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 4,979 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases on Thursday, as well as 123 new deaths.
Since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has reported a total of 1,086,333 cases, including 18,520 deaths.
The statewide 7-day average case positivity rate in Illinois now stands at 5.4%, the lowest it has been since Oct. 19. During the second surge of the pandemic in October and November, the state's case positivity rate peaked at 13.2% on Nov. 13, and other than a two-week rise after Christmas, has dropped steadily ever since.
The recent declines in positivity rates have allowed all but one region of the state to move out of the state's most restrictive regional virus mitigation efforts, and six of the state's 11 regions have been allowed to resume indoor dining. Only Region 4, the Metro East area near St. Louis, remains under the most restrictive Tier 3 mitigations, but IDPH said it is on track to move to Tier 2 on Friday.
In order to have Tier 3 mitigations rolled back to Tier 2, a given region must have a 7-day average test positivity rate of less than 12% for at least three days in a row, have more than 20% of its hospital beds and intensive care unit beds available for three consecutive days, and have declining numbers of COVID hospitalizations in 7 of the past 10 days.
Other than Will and Kankakee counties, which were allowed to resume limited indoor dining at restaurants and bars on Thursday after qualifying to move to Tier 1 mitigations, the rest of the Chicago area remains under Tier 2 mitigations, but could soon allow indoor dining as well if virus trends in the city and suburbs continue for the next few days, allowing them to move to Tier 1.
To qualify for Tier 1 mitigations, a region must have a 7-day average test positivity rate below 8% for three days in a row, have at least 20% of its hospital beds and intensive care unit beds available for three consecutive days, and have no sustained increase in COVID hospitalizations for 7 of the past 10 days.
Meantime, as of Wednesday night, 3,281 coronavirus patients were being treated in Illinois hospitals, including 662 in the ICU and 358 on ventilators. That's the fewest overall hospitalizations statewide since Oct. 30.
Coronavirus hospitalizations in Illinois peaked 6,175 on Nov. 20, although there are still far more COVID-19 patients in the hospital now than at the start of the fall surge in early October, when the state was averaging about 1,500 hospitalizations per day.
IDPH said a total of 1,425,075 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to Illinois as of Wednesday night, including 901,025 for frontline healthcare workers, and 524,050 for long-term care facilities. So far, a total of 572,389 doses of vaccine have been administered statewide, including 34,649 shots given on Wednesday, the second-highest one-day vaccination total so far in Illinois.
Both IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike and Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady have said they are encouraged that President Joe Biden has pledged to increase vaccine production and distribution.
However, Arwady said Thursday the city still isn't expecting a significant increase in vaccine distribution for at least three weeks.
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