IDPH: 42 Illinois counties remain ‘high’ risk for COVID-19; weekly deaths plummet

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Friday that 42 counties in the state are considered “high” risk for COVID-19, the same number as a week ago. An additional 39 counties are at the “medium” risk level, a decrease of nine from last week.

The counties listed at High Community Level are: Adams, Alexander, Champaign, Clark, Clay, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, DeKalb, Douglas, Edwards, Ford, Franklin, Gallatin, Hardin, Henderson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jo Daviess, Johnson, Kane, Kendall, Lake, Lawrence, Lee, Macoupin, Mason, Massac, Montgomery, Ogle, Perry, Pike, Pope, Pulaski, Richland, Saline, Stephenson, Wabash, Wayne, Whiteside, Williamson, and Winnebago.

The CDC recommends wearing a well-fitting mask indoors in public, regardless of vaccination status in high-risk counties.

IDPH announced 4,880 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 17 additional deaths Friday.

As of late Thursday, Illinois had 1,434 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 152 were in intensive care units, and 56 were on ventilators.

For Thursday, the state administered 8,924 vaccines.

From the IDPH’s data dashboard:

Case rate per 100,000: 28.1 (up 1.3 from Thursday)

Percentage of ICU beds available: 19%

COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admissions (seven-day rolling average): 132 (down 5 from Thursday)

Weekly deaths reported: 56 (down 67 from a week ago)

Illinois has seen 3,645,961 total cases of the virus, and 34,595 people have died.

County-by-county update: As of mid-April, the IDPH will provide a county-by-county update focusing on the case rate per 100,000 people, the percentage of ICU beds available, a rolling seven-day average of COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admissions and weekly deaths.

The definition of a COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admission is as follows: the seven-day average of daily number of hospital admissions given a diagnosis of COVID-19 as measured using the Illinois Syndromic Surveillance System.

Illinois collects all emergency department and inpatient visits through syndromic surveillance from all acute care hospitals in Illinois in near-real time. Data is presented with a three-day lag to allow time for diagnosis to be reported.

At the county level, a visit is counted by where the patient resides. A patient with multiple visits will be counted for each visit. Admissions may not be because of COVID-19 as the primary cause. Syndromic surveillance data is not the same source used by the CDC to report COVID-19 hospital admissions data.

Vaccine update: As of Friday, the IDPH reported a total of 29,133,375 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed statewide, with 23,166,764 vaccines administered.

As of Friday, 8,340,487 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, or 65.45% of the population. Illinois has a population of 12,741,080 people.

CDC numbers:

Among Illinois residents 5 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,792,828 (73.7%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,715,424 (81.5%)

Among Illinois residents 12 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,361,608 (77.2%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,225,582 (85.1%)

Among Illinois residents 18 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 7,714,066 (78.3%)

At Least 1 Dose: 8,516,313 (86.4%)

Among Illinois residents 65 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 1,830,230 (89.6%)

At Least 1 Dose: 1,977,453 (95%)

There can be as much as a 72-hour delay in reporting from health care providers on vaccines administered.

In northern Illinois, here is the percentage of the population fully vaccinated by county:

Chicago: 69.16%

Suburban Cook: 72.99%

Lake: 70.59%

McHenry: 66.08%

DuPage: 75.74%

Kane: 66.68%

Will: 66.96%

Kendall: 69.61%

La Salle: 58.54%

Grundy: 57.93%

DeKalb: 56.75%

Ogle: 57.18%

Lee: 59.03%

Whiteside: 52.03%

Bureau: 56.93%