IDPH reports 1,966 COVID-19 cases, 72 deaths

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,966 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total to 1,168,683.

The state’s death toll is at 20,129 after 72 more deaths were reported on Thursday.

The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a percent of total tests is 2.7 percent, a 0.6 percent drop from last week. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity using the number of COVID-19 positive tests over total tests is 3.3 percent, a 0.6 percent decrease from last week.

There were 67,542 tests processed over the past 24 hours. A total of 17,388,356 tests have been processed.

As of Wednesday night, 1,655 Illinoisans were in the hospital with COVID-19, a decrease of 299 from last week. Of the patients in the hospital this week, 386 were in the ICU and 184 patients were on ventilators, the latter a decrease of 43 from last week.

Thirty-one percent of Illinois’ 32,627 hospital beds were available as of Thursday morning. Twenty-nine percent of the state’s 3,306 ICU beds were available as were 75 percent of the state’s 5,655 ventilators.

A total of 1,977,033 vaccines have been administered, including 266,037 for long-term care facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is approximately 61,132 doses, with 73,091 doses administered on Wednesday.

There have been 2,106,800 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 continues to be delayed. The department said it has been in contact with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies to understand the logistical challenges and if there is anything Illinois can do to expedite receiving vaccines.