Illinois extends COVID-19 wastewater monitoring into 2023

The Department of Public Health and the Discovery Partners Institute will extend their effort to monitor for coronavirus and its variants in wastewater into mid-2023.

The extension is covered through $8.2 million in federal funds.

“We are very grateful to our federal funding partners for the support that allows us to continue building our capacity to conduct wastewater surveillance in communities throughout the state of Illinois,” IDPH Acting Director Amaal Tokars said in a statement.

The department said nearly 200 samples collected each week from across 56,000 square miles of Illinois are analyzed to determine which COVID-19 variants are infecting people at any given time.

As of Wednesday, 1,267 Illinoisans were in the hospital with COVID-19, up six from Tuesday and up 137 from the prior week.

Of the patients in the hospital, 118 were in intensive care units, down nine from Tuesday and down 12 from the prior week. Twenty-two percent of Illinois’ ICU beds were available, up 1 percentage point from the prior week.

There were 33 patients on ventilators, down six from Tuesday and up one from the prior week.

Nineteen Illinois counties are now classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having “high” COVID-19 transmission risk, the level the federal agency recommends that people mask indoors in public spaces. An additional 31 counties are rated at the “medium” risk level.

IDPH reported 6,399 new COVID-19 cases and eight death on Thursday. The new cases bring the state total to 3,313,162, while the death toll is at 33,844.

The seven-day average for new cases on Thursday was 4,635, down 490 from the prior week. The seven-day average for daily deaths is seven, the same as a week ago.

The seven-day case rate per 100,000 people is 36.4 down 3.8 from the prior week.

Illinois vaccinators have administered 22,388,276 COVID-19 vaccines, including 4,533,263 booster doses. The seven-day average for doses administered is 12,781.