Coronavirus In Illinois: State Reports Fifth Highest Death Toll So Far As FDA Authorization Of First Vaccine Nears
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Public health officials reported 9,420 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois on Friday, as well as 190 additional deaths, the fifth highest daily death toll during the pandemic, surpassing 14,000 total deaths so far.
It's the 19th time since Nov. 11 the state has reported more than 100 deaths in a single day. During the first wave of the pandemic in spring and summer, IDPH reported more than 100 daily deaths 25 times between between Mid-April and early June.
Over the past week, the state has reported a total of 1,079 virus deaths, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health; compared to 942 during the previous seven days, a 15% increase.
"We all want the deaths to come down," Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said at the state's daily coronavirus briefing Friday afternoon. "The light at the end of the tunnel is the vaccine, and getting as many people vaccinated as will be vaccinated based on the supply."
Ezike said wearing a mask is "more than enough" to get the spread of the virus back under control.
"When you say all that we can do is a mask, that can do it. That's more than enough to do it; to wear a mask and refrain from these gatherings now," she said. "That would keep these numbers down, that would bring down the death totals, that would give a break to the healthcare workers that have been just overtaxed, overstretched in our hospitals right now."
Ezike also warned, if people don't continue staying home and wearing a mask in public during the upcoming holidays "we could have a big surge."
"We're already teetering. We already have some areas where there are a dozen beds, a dozen ICU beds in the region right now, so a big surge cannot be handled," she said.
Since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has reported a total of 832,951 coronavirus cases, including 14,050 deaths.
The latest coronavirus statistics for Illinois come as the FDA said Friday it will work quickly to authorize Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use after an advisory panel voted in favor of it.
With FDA authorization expected Friday or Saturday, people could begin receiving vaccines as early as Monday. The first distributions of vaccines will be reserved for frontline healthcare workers, and staff and residents at long-term care facilities.
"The FDA's decision is all but imminent," Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday afternoon.
Pritzker said the state has its own panel of experts that will review the FDA's analysis of the vaccine, and he said those experts are optimistic the vaccine can move forward.
Once the FDA authorizes the vaccine, a CDC advisory panel will meet Sunday to formally recommend the vaccine and offer additional insight on how it should be used. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices already has recommended healthcare workers and long-term care facilities be given first priority for vaccine distribution.
Pritzker said federal officials have told states that the first doses of the vaccine will be shipped within 48 hours of approval.
"Illinois is prepared to quickly get this vaccine to our frontline healthcare workforce," Pritzker said.
Meantime, while deaths from the virus in Illinois are still trending upward, the state's positivity rate has largely been trending downward over the past month. After the state's seven-day average case positivity rate reached as high as 13.2% on Nov. 13, it is now down to 9.4%, the lowest it's been since Nov. 5.
As of Thursday night, a total of 5,141 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Illinois, including 1,081 in the ICU and 635 ventilators.
While hospitalizations seem to have started trending downward since peaking at 6,175 on Nov. 20, there are still far more COVID-19 patients in the hospital at the start of December than at the start of October.
Illinois is averaging 5,206 coronavirus hospitalizations per day over the last week, more than triple the average of about 1,500 per day at the start of October. During the first wave of the pandemic, the state peaked at an average of 4,822 hospitalizations per day in early May.
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