SHOT SLOWDOWN
Latest inoculation tally below average — as share of fully vaccinated Illinois residents hits 12%
With the latest 78,287 shots reported by public health officials Tuesday, about 12% of Illinois residents have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
It was the third straight day the state failed to top 100,000 administered doses, but thanks to record-setting totals last week, Illinois’ rolling average is up to a new high of 102,564 shots given per day, according to the state Department of Public Health.
Nearly 4.2 million shots have gone into Illinois arms over the past three months. Almost 1.6 million people have received either both required doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the one-and-done Johnson & Johnson shot.
Illinois residents 16 and up with chronic health conditions, plus a select group of essential workers, currently are eligible to receive doses, though that’s still not the case in Chicago, suburban Cook County and most other collar counties as supply remains low.
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady has said eligibility will expand in the city March 29. During an online Q&A, she teased that city officials would release more details on that plan Wednesday.
Meanwhile, state officials reported 1,997 new cases of the disease, the highest one-day total logged by the state since March 6.
And those cases were diagnosed among 51,240 tests, meaning 3.9% of samples came back positive — the highest proportion of positive tests in a single day reported by the state in almost seven weeks.
Still, the state’s rolling seven-day average positivity rate is 2.3%, hovering just above the all-time low of 2.1% reported over the weekend. Illinois reported just 782 new cases Monday, marking the first sub-1,000 daily case tally in nearly eight months.
Hospitals are treating just about the fewest coronavirus patients they’ve seen since the pandemic first hit, too, with 1,152 beds occupied as of Monday night. That included 250 patients receiving intensive care and 124 using ventilators, figures that have also bottomed out this month.
But the virus is still causing grief statewide, with 19 more COVID-19 deaths reported Tuesday. Illinois’ death toll is now up to 20,973, among more than 1.2 million people who have tested positive for the virus over the past year.