Illinois Reports Lowest Daily COVID-19 Case Count Since July, Infection Rate Below 3% For More Than Two Weeks
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois reported 1,143 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Monday, as well as 20 more deaths. It's the fewest new coronavirus cases in a single day since July 28, a span of more than seven months.
Since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has reported a total of 1,187,839 coronavirus cases, including 20,536 deaths.
The state's 7-day average case positivity rate now stands at 2.4%, tied for the lowest it's been since June 23. The state's average case positivity rate has been below 3% for 15 days in a row, the longest such stretch reported so far during the pandemic.
As of Sunday night, a total of 1,288 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Illinois, including 308 in the ICU and 148 on ventilators. Illinois averaged 1,394 COVID-19 hospitalizations per day over the last week of February, less than half of the average for the last week of January.
Meantime, Illinois has received a total of 3,183,805 doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the first vaccine was authorized in December. The state has administered a total of 2,756,831 doses of the vaccine so far, and a total of 835,597 people in Illinois have been fully vaccinated, or 6.56% of the state's population.
Vaccinations across Illinois surged last week, with an average of 77,876 doses administered per day over the past seven days, compared to an average of 59,748 doses per day one week earlier, when vaccine shipments were delayed due to severe winter weather across the country.
