Illinois COVID-19 bivalent vaccine uptake now more than 1.1 million doses, IDPH announces

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Friday that the state has administered more than 1.1 million bivalent COVID-19 vaccines since they were approved for use in early September.

That total includes more than 207,000 doses administered in the past week. The new bivalent vaccines are designed to offer added protection from the now-dominant strains of the omicron variant.

“I am encouraged to see the large and growing numbers of Illinoisans who are taking action to protect themselves and their families with the new bivalent booster,” IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said in a news release. “For those who have not gotten the new bivalent booster or the flu shot, NOW is the best time to get fully immunized and protected, while COVID-19 community levels are still relatively low. As we are currently experiencing a sharp increase in severe pediatric respiratory diseases that is resulting in a shortage of pediatric beds – and at the same time facing the prospect of a fall and winter surge of COVID-19 and other illnesses affecting all of us – I am strongly recommending the latest COVID-19 and flu shots for all those who are eligible. These immunizations are especially important for anyone over 50, immunocompromised, or those with chronic medical conditions.”

IDPH announced that three counties in the state are considered “high” risk for COVID-19, ending a three-week streak of zero counties at high risk. The three counties are Knox and Warren counties in western Illinois, and Saline County in southern Illinois. There are 26 counties are at the “medium” risk level, an increase of 10 from last week.

In counties at the Medium Community Level, persons who are elderly or immunocompromised (at risk of severe outcomes) are advised to wear a mask in indoor public places. They should also get up to date on COVID-19 vaccines or get their bivalent booster, if eligible.

The IDPH announced 2,892 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and eight additional deaths Friday. Also, Thursday’s case number was wrong by almost double, the IDPH announced Friday. “IDPH experienced processing errors on October 20, 2022 that led to about 3,000 duplicate cases being included in the reported case data. These have now been corrected.” The correct case total for Thursday is 2,975.

As of late Thursday, Illinois had 1,060 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, the most since September 22. Of those, 124 were in intensive care units, and 51 were on ventilators.

For Thursday, the state administered 39,621 vaccines.

From the IDPH’s data dashboard:

Case rate per 100,000: 13.4 (up 1.2 from Thursday)

Percentage of ICU beds available: 19%

COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admissions (seven-day rolling average): 87 (up 2 from Thursday)

Weekly deaths reported: 43 (down 9 from a week ago)

Illinois has seen 3,796,038 total cases of the virus, and 35,168 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.

Vaccine update: As of Friday, the IDPH reported a total of 29,622,775 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed statewide, with 24,478,907 vaccines administered.

As of Friday, 8,386,856 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, or 65.83% of the population. Illinois has a population of 12,741,080 people.

CDC numbers:

Among Illinois residents 5 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,869,821 (74.4%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,805,421 (82.2%)

Among Illinois residents 12 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 8,428,943 (77.8%)

At Least 1 Dose: 9,307,448 (85.9%)

Among Illinois residents 18 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 7,776,603 (78.9%)

At Least 1 Dose: 8,593,344 (87.2%)

Among Illinois residents 65 and older:

Fully Vaccinated: 1,845,354 (90.3%)

At Least 1 Dose: 1,994,743 (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: 69.41%

Suburban Cook: 73.45%

Lake: 71.21%

McHenry: 66.47%

DuPage: 76.18%

Kane: 67.03%

Will: 67.31%

Kendall: 70.24%

La Salle: 58.80%

Grundy: 58.15%

DeKalb: 56.88%

Ogle: 57.28%

Lee: 59.26%

Whiteside: 52.18%

Bureau: 57.10%