Nearly 400K in state now fully vaccinated against virus
Nearly 400,000 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, public health officials announced Saturday.
Those 399,166 residents who have received both required shots account for only 3.1% of the state population, but the Illinois Department of Public Health says with 1.7 million total doses administered in the last two months, about 10% of Illinoisans have gotten at least one so far.
A total of 79,704 shots went into arms Friday, which trails only the 95,375 administered a day earlier for the most in a single day.
The state’s rolling average of shots given per day is up to a high of 61,384. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he expects that rate to keep ballooning as the federal government ships out doses in larger quantities and a third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson nears federal approval.
As the vaccination effort ramps up, officials reported another 2,092 coronavirus cases were diagnosed statewide among 84,990 tests, decreasing the average statewide testing positivity rate to 2.9%. That key indicator of transmission hasn’t been lower since early July.
COVID-19 hospital admissions are at a fraction of their peak levels, too, with 1,892 beds occupied statewide as of Friday night. That figure hit 6,175 in late November.
The state logged an additional 53 deaths attributed to the virus.
In the last 11 months, the virus has infected close to 1.2 million people across the state and killed 19,926 of them.