Illinois over 1,500 COVID-19 hospitalizations for first time since August

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Friday 3,300 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and seven additional deaths.

The CDC reported 63 Illinois counties are at an elevated community level for COVID-19, up from 46 counties at an elevated level in the previous week, with 12 counties at a high community level and 51 counties at a medium level. IDPH is reporting 20,495 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois since November 25, and 57 deaths.

As of late Thursday, Illinois had 1,509 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, the most since August 15. Of those, 161 were in intensive care units, and 51 were on ventilators.

“As we enter December and the weather continues to get colder, Illinois is beginning to see an anticipated increase in COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses such as the flu,” IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said in a news release. “Please continue to take all preventative measure to protect yourself, your family, and friends, especially very young children and individuals over 65 who are most vulnerable to severe outcomes. These effective strategies include COVID-19 testing, especially if visiting someone at risk for severe disease; enhanced ventilation; good hand hygiene; staying home if sick; and getting up to date with both the COVID-19 bivalent booster and the flu shot.”

For Thursday, the state administered 18,948 vaccines.

Case rate per 100,000: 23.0 (up 2.1 from Thursday)

Percentage of ICU beds available: 12%

COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admissions (seven-day rolling average): 145 (up 7 from Thursday, highest since July 19)

Weekly deaths reported: 57 (up 9 from previous week)

Illinois has seen 3,885,397 total cases of the virus, and 35,494 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 Friday, the IDPH reported a total of 29,845,175 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed statewide, with 25,393,251 vaccines administered.

As of Friday, 8,406,450 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, or 65.98% of the population. Illinois has a population of 12,741,080 people.

CDC numbers:

Among Illinois residents 5 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,939,399 (75%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,895,582 (83%)

Among Illinois residents 12 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,492,371 (78.4%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,390,809 (86.6%)

Among Illinois residents 18 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 7,836,755 (79.5%)

At Least 1 Dose: 8,672,310 (88%)

Among Illinois residents 65 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 1,859,572 (91%)

At Least 1 Dose: 2,010,346 (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: 69.42%

Suburban Cook: 73.69%

Lake: 71.51%

McHenry: 66.69%

DuPage: 76.39%

Kane: 67.13%

Will: 67.49%

Kendall: 70.63%

La Salle: 58.90%

Grundy: 58.30%

DeKalb: 56.98%

Ogle: 57.39%

Lee: 59.31%

Whiteside: 52.20%

Bureau: 57.19%