Illinois Reports Highest Daily COVID-19 Case Count Since January
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As a new indoor mask mandate goes into effect on Friday in Chicago, state public health officials reported the most new cases statewide in a single day in nearly seven months.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Friday announced 24,682 new COVID-19 cases statewide over the past week, including 4,904 new cases reported on Friday alone. That's the highest daily case count since Jan. 23, when the vaccine was still not widely available to most people.
Illinois is averaging 3,526 new cases per day over the past week, the state's highest daily case average since April 13. The state's average daily caseload has risen more than sixfold over the past month, after hitting pandemic lows in late June and early July.
The state's seven-day average case positivity rate is up to 5.3%, the highest infection rate in Illinois since Jan. 21, before vaccines were widely available. The infection rate has climbed by two points in the past month.
Illinois also reported 2,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday night, the first time the state has reached that level of daily hospitalizations since May 5. Hospitalizations have surged in the past few weeks in Illinois, with an average of 1,892 hospitalizations per day over the past week, up more than triple from one month ago.
The vaccination rate has gone up the past month. We're now averaging 33,564 doses per day, up 76% from a month ago.
Public health officials have said the latest surge is driven largely by people who have not yet been fully vaccinated, and by the more contagious delta variant.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady on Tuesday said 99.7% of Chicagoans who have been fully vaccinated have not been diagnosed with COVID after getting their shots, and 99.99% of Chicagoans who have been fully vaccinated have not been hospitalized or died after getting their shot.
More than 95% of all new confirmed cases in COVID-19 in Chicago are the delta variant, according to Arwady. She said that's because it is so much more contagious than other variants of the virus.
"If you've been waiting to get your vaccine, especially if you're over 60, delta is here. Now is the time," she said. "Getting people who are unvaccinated started on vaccine is the most important thing to protect everybody."
According to the CDC, every county in Illinois is now reporting a high level of community transmission of COVID-19, prompting a recommendation that everyone wear masks indoors.
While Chicago has instituted an indoor mask mandate, and Gov. JB Pritzker has issued an order requiring masks inside all public and private schools in Illinois, the governor has yet to reinstate a statewide indoor mask mandate.
Pritzker said local and county governments have always had the option of imposing more stringent COVID-19 mitigations during the pandemic than the restrictions he has enacted statewide.
"There have been moments throughout the last year and half that you've seen not just the City of Chicago, but other places, that have taken proactive actions that they believe would work in their communities, so I encourage those local community leaders to do so," he said. "Very few, frankly, local leaders, very few elected leaders have been willing to stand up and make tough decisions for their communities. I mean, it's about time for some of them, but I want to congratulate folks who actually already do that."
