IDPH: 1.5 million bivalent vaccine boosters administered

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Thursday that more than 1.5 million Illinois residents have received a bivalent COVID-19 booster since they became available in early September.

“As the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, we continue to see respiratory viruses spreading rapidly across Illinois and across the country – this includes RSV, influenza, and COVID-19,” IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said in a news release. “The U.S. is currently facing its highest flu hospitalization rate in a decade, with young children and seniors most at risk. Vaccines remain our best tools to prevent the worst outcomes from COVID-19 and flu. I strongly recommend all that have not gotten full protection from COVID-19 and the flu to get vaccinated right away. Both the new COVID-19 bivalent booster and the flu shot target the current strains of these viruses.”

The CDC authorized two new bivalent booster vaccines on September 1 that include an mRNA component of the original strain to provide an immune response that is broadly protective against COVID-19 and an added mRNA component in common between the omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5 lineages to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant.

The IDPH announced Thursday 2,187 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 19 additional deaths.

As of late Wednesday, Illinois had 1,109 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 147 were in intensive care units, and 42 were on ventilators.

For Wednesday, the state administered 26,378 vaccines.

Case rate per 100,000: 15.1 (down 1.1 from Wednesday)

Percentage of ICU beds available: 19%

COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admissions (seven-day rolling average): 103 (same as Wednesday)

Weekly deaths reported: 54

Illinois has seen 3,834,925 total cases of the virus, and 35,327 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.

Vaccine update: As of Thursday, the IDPH reported a total of 29,701,575 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed statewide, with 25,002,064 vaccines administered.

As of Thursday, 8,395,159 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, or 65.89% of the population. Illinois has a population of 12,741,080 people.

CDC numbers:

Among Illinois residents 5 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,907,272 (74.7%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,854,326 (82.6%)

Among Illinois residents 12 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,463,510 (78.1%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,353,236 (86.3%)

Among Illinois residents 18 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 7,809,884 (79.3%)

At Least 1 Dose: 8,637,409 (87.7%)

Among Illinois residents 65 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 1,855,616 (90.8%)

At Least 1 Dose: 2,006,380 (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: 69.37%

Suburban Cook: 73.57%

Lake: 71.38%

McHenry: 66.59%

DuPage: 76.26%

Kane: 67.07%

Will: 67.40%

Kendall: 70.47%

La Salle: 58.85%

Grundy: 58.23%

DeKalb: 56.94%

Ogle: 57.34%

Lee: 59.24%

Whiteside: 52.17%

Bureau: 57.16%