IDPH reports 1,795 COVID-19 cases, 24 deaths

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,795 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,166,717.

The state’s death toll is at 20,057 after 24 more deaths were reported on Wednesday.

The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a percent of total tests is 2.8 percent, a 0.5 percent drop from last week. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity using the number of COVID-19 positive tests over total tests is 3.4 percent, a 0.6 percent decrease from last week.

There were 49,937 tests processed over the past 24 hours. A total of 17,320,814 tests have been processed.

As of Tuesday night, 1,719 Illinoisans were in the hospital with COVID-19, a decrease of 363 from last week. Of the patients in the hospital this week, 375 were in the ICU and 176 patients were on ventilators, the latter a decrease of 56 from last week.

Thirty-one percent of Illinois’ 32,554 hospital beds were available as of Wednesday morning. Twenty-nine percent of the state’s 3,315 ICU beds were available as were 73 percent of the state’s 5,662 ventilators.

A total of 1,903,942 vaccines have been administered, including 256,114 for long-term care facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is approximately 60,552 doses, with 40,380 doses administered on Tuesday.

The department said winter weather will likely contribute to reduced vaccinations over the next several days.

There have been 2,102,500 doses of COVID-19 vaccines delivered to Illinois providers, including in Chicago. An additional 445,200 doses have been allocated to the federal government’s Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities.

Due to adverse weather across the country, the number of doses of vaccine delivered to Illinois has been delayed, with only 55,000 of the state’s weekly allocation of 365,000 having been received so far. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has indicated some shipments may go out on Wednesday.