COVID-19 In Illinois: New Cases Have Nearly Doubled In The Past Month; Infection Rate At Highest Point Since January
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Even as Illinois expands COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to everyone age 16 and older on Monday, new virus cases continue to climb across the state, with new daily case counts having nearly doubled over the past month.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 2,433 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases on Monday, as well as 18 more deaths. So far in April, Illinois is averaging 3,135 new cases per day, a 93% increase over the first 12 days of March, when the state averaged 1,623 new cases per day.
Since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has reported a total of 1,282,205 cases, including 21,523 deaths.
The state's seven-day average case positivity rate is up to 4.4%, the highest it's been since Jan. 27, and nearly double the 2.3% average case positivity rate reported one month ago.
As of Sunday night, 1,998 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Illinois, including 418 in the ICU and 177 on ventilators. It's the most overall hospitalizations in Illinois since Feb. 9. Illinois is averaging 1,688 hospitalizations per day so far in April, compared to 1,179 per day during the same time period in March, a 43% increase.
Meantime, coronavirus vaccinations continue to climb in Illinois, with the state now averaging 132,188 doses administered per day over the past week, the highest average so far. A total of 9,001,105 doses of vaccine have been delivered to Illinois since December, and 7,243,383 doses have been administered statewide.
A total of 2,890,492 people in Illinois have been fully vaccinated as of Sunday night, accounting for 22.69% of the population.