CHICAGO — Another 23 Illinoisans were reported dead from coronavirus over the past day.
For weeks, the state was seeing quick growth in new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and positivity rates, with officials warning of a third wave. Those numbers are beginning to drop now, though.
Officials are urging everyone to get vaccinated and to continue taking safety precautions — like wearing a mask and staying socially distant — for the time being. Anyone who is 16 or older can now get vaccinated in Chicago and Illinois.
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Current vaccines have been shown to be highly effective at preventing serious illness and death among those more common variants, but the vast majority of Chicagoans have not yet been fully vaccinated.
At the same time, the city has maintained its loosened rules on businesses, allowing for more people to gather at restaurants and bars. Reopening is also stalled on a statewide level.
The most recent victims included 11 people from Cook County, including a man in his 40s.
At least 21,858 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 2,316 deaths are probably related to the virus, according to the state.
The state reported 2,556 cases over the past day. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 1,325,726.
Across Illinois, 105,757 vaccine doses are being administered per day, based on a seven-day rolling average. Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 8,942,127 vaccine doses of the 11,149,675 provided to them.
City data shows 1,876,041 doses of vaccine have been administered to Chicagoans, and 2,040,123 doses have been administered in the city overall. About 43 percent of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot, while 28.5 percent have completed their vaccination. Among Chicagoans 65 and older, about 65.1 percent have gotten at least one dose, while 53.8 percent have finished their vaccination.
People are still at risk from COVID-19 and will have to continue taking precautions for much of 2021, officials have said. People should keep wearing a mask, staying socially distant, washing their hands frequently, not gathering, not traveling and not having people into their home, experts have said.
Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate held at 3.5 percent Tuesday with 62,724 tests reported. The figure represents the percentage of people testing positive among recent tests.
Illinois’ seven-day test positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that were positive, held at 4.1 percent Tuesday.
As of Monday night, 2,180 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Illinois, including 502 people in the ICU and 251 people using ventilators.
In Chicago, 11 deaths and 405 confirmed cases were reported since Monday. There have been at least 5,149 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago and 273,699 confirmed cases, according to state data.
The city is seeing an average of four deaths per day, down from an average of five deaths per day the week prior.
An average of 548 confirmed cases are being reported per day, a 17 percent decrease from the previous week. At the same time, testing has fallen 6 percent since a week ago.
The city’s seven-day positivity rate is at 4.9 percent, down from 5.4 percent the week before.
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