CHICAGO — More than 70 percent of adult Chicagoans have now gotten at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and the same is true for more than 50 percent of kids 12-17.
The city’s health department celebrated the milestones, which come as officials push people to get their shots so they can be protected against the virus’s Delta variant.
“Reaching an adult vaccination rate of 70 percent is an important milestone in our COVID-19 journey that brings us closer together as one home team and signifies the incredible progress we’ve made in fighting back against this pandemic,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement. “While our work continues to get as many of our residents vaccinated so we can protect them from this virus and its variants, we must take this moment to celebrate this achievement.”
The vaccines are free and do not require insurance. They have been shown to largely prevent serious illness and death from COVID-19.
The city and state have seen a surge in cases and hospitalizations due to the more contagious Delta variant.
But the latest wave of COVID-19 — which has been fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant — has had the deepest impact on unvaccinated people.
In June, 96 percent of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois were not fully vaccinated, and the majority were younger than 60, Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday.
In Chicago, about 97 percent of people who have been hospitalized with or died from COVID-19 since January were did not have all their shots, officials have said.
Anyone can call the city’s coronavirus hotline at 312-746-4835 to get more information on how and where to get vaccinated in their community.
Vaccinations:
• In Illinois, about 6.5 million people of all ages — or 51.65 percent of the state’s 12.7 million people — have gotten all their COVID-19 vaccine shots, according to state data.
• Across the state, 25,426 vaccine doses are being administered per day, based on a seven-day rolling average.
• Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 13,468,327 vaccine doses of the 15,146,355 provided to them.
• City data shows more than 1.4 million Chicagoans — or 52.9 percent of all residents — have gotten fully vaccinated. About 59.6 percent of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot.
COVID-19 vaccinations are free and do not require insurance. Anyone can call the city’s coronavirus hotline at 312-746-4835 to get more information on how and where to get vaccinated in their community.
The numbers:
• Twenty-nine Illinoisans were reported dead from COVID-19 since Friday.
• At least 23,532 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 2,491 deaths are probably related to the virus, according to the state.
• The state reported 7,858 cases since Friday. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 1,444,211.
• Since Friday, 162,814 tests were reported statewide. In all, 27,351,586 tests have been reported in Illinois.
• Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate was at 4.9 percent. The figure represents the percentage of people testing positive among recent tests. It was at 4.6 percent Friday.
• Illinois’ seven-day test positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that were positive, was at 5.6 percent. It was at 5.2 percent Friday.
• As of Sunday night, 282 people with COVID-19 were in the ICU and 127 people with COVID-19 were using ventilators in Illinois.
• In Chicago, five deaths were reported since Friday. There have been at least 5,528 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago. The city is seeing an average of three deaths per day, a 133 percent increase from the week prior.
• Chicago has had 1,082 confirmed cases reported since Friday. It’s had a total of 292,030 confirmed cases. An average of 347 confirmed cases are being reported per day, a 46 percent increase from the week prior.
• At the same time, testing has increased 29 percent since a week ago.
• Chicago’s positivity rate was at 3.8 percent, up from 3.3 percent the week prior.
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