State’s positivity rate, hospitalizations drop
The state’s COVID-19 sevenday average case positivity rate dropped to 5.7% Tuesday, the lowest it has been since Oct. 23.
The positivity rate peaked at 13.2% on a rolling average as of Nov. 13, and the entire state entered strict Tier 3 mitigations on Nov. 20. Since then the positivity rate has been on a continual downward trend except for the two weeks following Christmas Day when it rose from just under 7% to over 8.5% before beginning to fall again.
Hospitalizations for the disease continued on a gradual downward arc as well, decreasing for the eighth week in a row as of Sunday night after peaking the week ending Nov. 22.
There were 3,335 people reported hospitalized for COVID-19 in Illinois as of Monday night, while there were 3,473 people hospitalized on average each night for the seven days prior. That marked a 7% decrease from the week prior and a 43% drop from its peak the week ending Nov. 22.
Intensive care unit beds have followed similar trends with 713 of them in use by COVID-19 patients Monday night and 728 in use on average each night for the seven days prior.
That marked a 5.9% decrease from the week prior and a 40% decrease from the week ending Nov. 29.
COVID-19 patients occupied 395 ventilators as of Monday, or slightly more than the 389 that were in use on average the seven days prior.
That number marked an 8% decrease from the week prior and a 44% decrease from the Nov. 29 peak.
Deaths slowing
Deaths related to COVID-19 have significantly dropped this week as well, although those numbers fluctuate daily and are lagging indicators of disease spread. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported another 33 deaths Tuesday after reporting 50 Monday and 29 Sunday.
The state had reported singleday death counts exceeding 100 for 17 of the past 30 days, and has not reported a death count this low in a three-day period since the end of October.
The progress on all of the key metrics has spurred the state to begin removing mitigation measures that prohibited several indoor activities since Nov. 20 or earlier, depending on the region and the activity.
Region 4 near St. Louis and Region 7 in Will and Kankakee counties remain under the strictest Tier 3 mitigations.
Vaccine update
The state has now reported over 1 million cases of the disease and 18,291 deaths since the pandemic first reached Illinois, with more than 14.8 million test results reported.
As of Tuesday, Illinois had received over 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with 508,732 administered, although administrators have three days to report a vaccination once it has been conducted.
On average over the past week, the state administered 22,134 doses each day. Gov. JB Pritzker’s office also announced the locations for four state-supported vaccination sites in Cook County Tuesday which will begin vaccinating individuals immediately.
They are in North Riverside, Robbins, Cicero and Ford Heights and will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for health care workers. More information is available at cookcountypublichealth.org.
“Standing up these sites is a pivotal first step of a plan that coordinates our 97 local health departments statewide — who operate clinics already and will open up more as vaccine supply grows,” Pritzker said in a news release.
Phase 1b will begin statewide on Jan. 25 with sites giving vaccinations to those eligible by appointment only, according to the governor’s office. All residents over the age of 65 and front-line essential workers can receive the vaccine as part of Phase 1b. IDPH will also partner with large pharmacies to launch new sites in communities across Illinois, according to the governor’s office.