10K New Cases, 272 Deaths in Last Week as Drop Continues – NBC Chicago

Illinois health officials reported 10,462 new COVID-19 cases over the past week, along with 272 additional deaths and over 87,000 new vaccine doses administered, marking a continued drop in cases and deaths.

The previous week, the state reported 13,028 new cases and 355 deaths. The week before that, 20,896 new cases and 417 deaths were reported.

In all, 3,037,199 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The additional deaths bring the state to 32,926 confirmed COVID fatalities.

The state has administered 750,521 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 55 million tests conducted during the pandemic.

The state’s positivity rate on tests in the last week dropped to 1.4%, a decrease from the 1.8% reported last Friday. Meanwhile, the positivity rate on individuals tested dropped to 1.6%, from 2.4% the previous week.

Over the past seven days, the state’s weekly vaccination average dropped to 12,488 doses, per IDPH data.

More than 21 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December 2020. More than 67% of Illinois resident are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with more than 76% receiving at least one dose. More than 49% are also boosted.

As of midnight Thursday, 843 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 153 are in ICU beds, and 77 are on ventilators, both of which have decreased in the last seven days.