IDPH: 66 Illinois counties at “high” COVID-19 risk

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Friday that there are 66 counties in the state at “high” risk for COVID-19, an increase of eight from the previous week. An additional 31 counties are at “medium” risk, a decrease of five from the previous week.

The northern Illinois counties listed at high community level are: Boone, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kendall, Lake, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, Will, and Winnebago.

“With 97 counties at an elevated risk level for COVID-19, the most important thing people can do to protect themselves is to make sure they are up-to-date on their vaccinations and boosters,” IDPH Acting Director Amaal Tokars said in a news release. “This is the most effective means we have to protect ourselves from serious illness, hospitalization and death. So please don’t wait to get up-to-date!”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing a well-fitting, high-quality mask in public indoor settings, regardless of vaccination status, in high-community-level counties, along with being up-to-date on vaccinations and boosters.

At the medium community level, people who are elderly or immunocompromised (at risk of severe outcomes) are advised to wear a mask in indoor public places.

IDPH announced 5,913 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and five additional deaths Friday.

As of late Thursday, Illinois had 1,459 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 153 were in intensive care units and 43 were on ventilators.

For Thursday, the state administered 13,031 vaccines.

From the IDPH’s data dashboard:

Case rate per 100,000: 39.7 (up 0.8 from Thursday)

Percentage of ICU beds available: 17%

COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admissions (seven-day rolling average): 142 (down 1 from Thursday)

Weekly deaths reported: 48 (down 4 from last week)

Illinois has seen 3,563,653 total cases of the virus, and 34,357 people have died.

County-by-county update: As of mid-April, 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 the CDC to report COVID-19 hospital admissions data.

Vaccine update: As of Friday, the IDPH reported a total of 28,751,275 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed statewide, with 22,985,407 vaccines administered.

As of Friday, 8,323,792 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, or 65.33% of the population. Illinois has a population of 12,741,080 people.

CDC numbers:

Among Illinois residents 5 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,770,803 (73.6%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,690,988 (81.3%)

Among Illinois residents 12 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,344,607 (77%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,209,070 (85%)

Among Illinois residents 18 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 7,700,489 (78.1%)

At Least 1 Dose: 8,503,679 (86.3%)

Among Illinois residents 65 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 1,827,955 (89.5%)

At Least 1 Dose: 1,975,848 (95%)

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

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

Chicago: 69.03%

Suburban Cook: 72.86%

Lake: 70.43%

McHenry: 65.92%

DuPage: 75.61%

Kane: 66.54%

Will: 66.83%

Kendall: 69.39%

La Salle: 58.45%

Grundy: 57.82%

DeKalb: 56.71%

Ogle: 57.03%

Lee: 58.95%

Whiteside: 51.95%

Bureau: 56.82%