For the first time in a month, Illinois is back under 2,000 total COVID-19 patients in the hospital, and new hospital admissions for covid-like illness are down almost 20%

For elementary school-aged kids, Pfizer tested a much lower dose – a third of the amount that’s in each shot given now. Yet after their second dose, children ages 5 to 11 developed coronavirus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as teenagers and young adults.

An influential federal advisory panel rejected a plan Friday to give Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots to most Americans, but it endorsed the extra shots for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease.

New COVID-19 cases in Illinois children are down for the first time in 10 weeks, and total COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to fall

Illinois now has more than 6.9 million people fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and covid patients in Illinois hospitals dropped to the lowest level since August 28.

This interactive map shows how vaccinated the state of Illinois is by ZIP code, updated this week

Analysis of new hospital admissions for covid-like illness in the state over the past week put breakthrough hospitalizations at 14.1% of new COVID-19 hospitalizations in Illinois, with unvaccinated patients making up 85.9% of COVID-19 hospitalizations for the week

Whiteside and Lee report 141 COVID-19 cases, while Lee County is the first in the Sauk Valley to reach 50% fully vaccinated.

40% of staffed ICU beds in use in southern Illinois are occupied by COVID-19 patients, and IDPH received federal approval to use three VA Medical Center ICUs for the next month to open up beds in the region hard hit by the delta variant