Illinois COVID-19 update: Case rate rises back to February levels

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 3,340 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and five additional deaths Thursday.

It’s the most new virus cases in a single day since Feb. 11. The state’s rolling seven-day case average increased to 1,992 new cases per day, the highest average since Feb. 24.

For Wednesday, the state administered 21,441 shots.

From the IDPH’s new data dashboard:

Case rate per 100,000: 15.6 (Up 1.9 from Wednesday, highest rate since Februrary 24)

Percentage of ICU beds available: 22%

COVID-19 diagnosed hospital admissions (7-day rolling average): 38

Weekly deaths reported: 71

Illinois has seen 3,092,065 total cases of the virus, and 33,504 people have died.

As of late Wednesday, Illinois had 496 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 69 were in intensive care units, and 47 were on ventilators.

[ CDC extends travel mask requirement to May 3 as COVID rises ]

County-by-county update: As of Tuesday, the IDPH will provide a county-by-county update focusing on the case rate per 100,000 people, the percentage of ICU beds available, a rolling seven-day average of COVID-19 diagnosed hospital admissions, and weekly deaths.

The definition of a COVID-19 diagnosed hospital admission is as follows: The seven-day average of daily number of hospital admissions given a diagnosis of COVID-19 as measured using the Illinois Syndromic Surveillance System.

Illinois collects all emergency department and inpatient visits through syndromic surveillance from all acute care hospitals in Illinois in near-real time. Data is presented with a three-day lag to allow time for diagnosis to be reported.

At the county level, a visit is counted by where the patient resides. A patient with multiple visits will be counted for each visit. Admissions may not be because of COVID-19 as the primary cause. Syndromic surveillance data is not the same source used by CDC to report COVID-19 hospital admissions data.

Vaccine update: As of Thursday, the IDPH reported a total of 26,262,345 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed statewide, with 21,626,218 vaccines administered.

As of Thursday, 8,226,028 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, or 64.56% of the population. Illinois has a population of 12,741,080 people.

CDC numbers:

Among Illinois residents 5 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,671,807 (72.7%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,691,120 (81.3%)

Among Illinois residents 12 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,260,792 (76.2%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,225,492 (85.1%)

Among Illinois residents 18 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 7,620,902 (77.3%)

At Least 1 Dose: 8,518,750 (86.5%)

Among Illinois residents 65 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 1,800,420 (88.1%)

At Least 1 Dose: 1,973,580 (95%)

There can be as much as a 72-hour delay in reporting from healthcare providers on vaccines administered.

In northern Illinois, here is the percentage of the population fully vaccinated by county:

Chicago: 67.99%

Suburban Cook: 72.21%

Lake: 69.07%

McHenry: 65.09%

DuPage: 74.87%

Kane: 65.70%

Will: 66.05%

Kendall: 68.25%

La Salle: 57.89%

Grundy: 57.16%

DeKalb: 56.16%

Ogle: 56.44%

Lee: 58.45%

Whiteside: 51.36%

Bureau: 55.95%