A
health care worker at Mount Sinai Hospital receives one of the
Southwest Side hospital’s first 975 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccination last week. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
file
While deaths remain high, the state has averaged about 6,800 new
cases a day over the last week, down from a staggering rate of
about 11,800 cases per day this time last month.�
Illinois’ coronavirus numbers took another step in the right
direction Tuesday as public health officials announced 6,239 more
people have contracted COVID-19, while another 116 residents died
of the virus.
The new cases were diagnosed among 84,764 tests submitted to the
Illinois Department of Public Health, lowering the state’s
average positivity rate over the last week to 7.4%.
That number, which indicates how rapidly the virus is spreading,
has shrunk almost by half compared to the peak of Illinois’
autumn resurgence when it soared to 13.2% on Nov. 13.
On Monday, the state reported its smallest daily caseload in
almost two months, with 4,699 new infections. That’s still higher
than the springtime peak of 4,014 reported on May 12, but it’s
less than a third of the all-time high 15,415 cases reported on
Nov. 13.
The state has averaged about 6,800 new cases per day over the
last week compared to a staggering rate of about 11,800 cases per
day this time last month.
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But COVID-19 deaths are still mounting as quickly as ever. About
130 Illinoisans have died of the coronavirus on average each day
over the last week, compared to about 110 deaths per day this time
last month.
The latest 116 victims included 41 Cook County residents and 21
other people from the Chicago area.
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displaying properly? Click here.
Hospitalizations increased by 111 patients to 4,571 statewide as
of Monday night. The number of patients receiving intensive care
stayed level at 981 while the number on ventilators increased
slightly to 557.
Hospitalizations have generally trended downward across the
state since reaching a peak of 6,175 beds occupied by coronavirus
patients the night of Nov. 20.
The state’s gradual improvement comes as public health
officials work to immunize the state’s health care workforce of
about 655,000.
As of Monday, about 63,000 workers outside Chicago had received
doses from the state’s initial 109,000 doses of the Pfizer
coronavirus vaccine, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s
office.
Illinois is slated to receive about 60,500 more Pfizer shots
this week from the federal government, including about 16,600 sent
directly to Chicago.
Most of those will be set aside for nursing home residents, who
are expected to be inoculated beginning next week through a federal
partnership with CVS and Walgreens, according to Pritzker’s
office.
The supply is expected to be bolstered Wednesday and Thursday as
the state begins receiving its first 174,000 doses of the Moderna
vaccine, about 46,800 of which are earmarked for Chicago.
After health care workers and the state’s roughly 110,000
long-term care facility residents, next in line for shots are
essential workers and older people with underlying health
conditions. It’ll be several months before the vaccine is widely
available.
Since March, about 12.6 million coronavirus tests have been
administered in Illinois, with 911,308 people testing positive and
15,414 of those dying. The recovery rate is 98%.
