Nearly 4,000 people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in southwest Illinois
Nearly 4,000 individuals have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the metro-east as of Thursday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Vaccinations of healthcare workers and other members of the 1A vaccinations group began in mid-December and have been ongoing since.
The state reported Thursday that roughly 0.72% of its entire population has been vaccinated, or 91,947 individuals.
A total of 3,867 individuals have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the metro-east’s seven counties, while a total of 17,201 vaccines have been administered, according to state health department data.
Madison County has administered the most vaccines, with a total of 5,993 as of Thursday, while St. Clair County has fully vaccinated the most individuals in the region with a total of 1,555.
Meanwhile, Region 4’s COVID-19 seven-day positivity rate continued to drop Thursday, reporting its lowest rate since Nov. 1, when it was 10.3% .
The metro-east’s rolling seven-day average positivity rate was 10.3% on Thursday, down from 11.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the region reported a daily positivity rate of 7.2% on Thursday, down from 10.3% Wednesday and the lowest the rate has been since Oct. 15.
The number of available hospital and ICU beds in the seven-county metro-east, meanwhile, fell, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
As of Thursday, 12.2% of the metro-east’s staffed hospital beds were available for patient use, down from 12.4% on Wednesday, according to state health department data. Additionally, 15.3% of the region’s intensive care unit beds were available as of Thursday, down from 17.3% Wednesday.
Thursday also marked the 17th consecutive day the region’s hospital bed availability has been below the state-set threshold of at least 20% and the seventh-straight day the region’s ICU availability has been under the threshold, which plays a part in determining whether COVID-19 restrictions need to be tightened or relaxed. Currently, the entire state is in Tier 3 mitigations.
Overall, as of Thursday, Region 4 still had the highest positivity rate and the lowest hospital bed availability statewide.
For Tier 3 mitigation metrics to be relaxed or to move to Tier 2, the region must experience a seven-day rolling average positivity rate of less than 12% for three consecutive days while also seeing at least 20% available intensive care unit and medical/surgical bed availability for three consecutive days.
The new testing positivity rate is based on data recorded as of Jan. 11, and the hospital and ICU bed availability is based on data recorded as of Jan. 13. A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a seven-day period.
Restrictions on Illinois businesses in some regions may be lifted as early as Friday, depending on the level of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in their communities, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced last week. Illinois officials had paused any removal of restrictions through the end of year holidays, even as statistics improved in some areas of the state.
Officials picked Friday as the earliest date for that to happen because it is outside of the time frame during which the state could see any potential surge in COVID-19 diagnoses from holiday gatherings.
Tier 3 restrictions went into place statewide on Friday, Nov. 20. The third tier tightens restrictions on indoor dining, bars and social gatherings while adding restrictions to casinos, retailers, video gaming and museums.
The state classifies the metro-east as Region 4, which covers seven counties: St. Clair, Madison, Monroe, Bond, Washington, Clinton and Randolph. County-by-county data is available on the state health department’s website.
State of Illinois announces new cases, deaths
Meanwhile, the state of Illinois announced 6,652 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the total to 1,052,682. The state health department also announced 88 additional deaths to bring the total to 17,928 since the pandemic began.
Also within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 118,036 new tests have been administered for a total of 118,036.
As of Wednesday, when the latest data was available, 3,511 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 742 patients were in the ICU, and 382 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Jan. 7-13 is 6.8%, down from 7.3% the day prior.