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case positivity rate had not been near 3.8 percent since the
beginning of February, when it hit 3.9 percent on Feb. 1, and
then continued to decline throughout the month and into March.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported as of Sunday
night, 1,581 COVID-19 patients were in the hospital, an increase
of 229 from the previous Sunday. Of those, 358 patients were in
intensive care unit beds, an increase of 78 from last Sunday,
and 159 COVID-19 patients were reported to be on ventilators, an
increase of 31 from last Sunday.
IDPH reported 2,102 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19
out of 59,586 test results reported on Monday, with an
additional 11 virus-related deaths.
Gov. JB Pritzker said in an unrelated news conference Monday in
Champaign that Illinois could be approaching a third surge that
many other areas of the nation have already seen.
“But these things come in waves,” Pritzker said. “I am hopeful
that with the rising number of vaccinations we're doing – we’re
averaging over 100,000 a day – the increasing number of people
who are fully vaccinated at the same time that we're dealing
with a surge, ...that we can sort of overcome the surge for the
very first time.”
Approximately 6.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been
administered, representing about 40 percent of residents 16
years or older having received their first dose. About 2.3
million people, or nearly 18.7 percent of the state’s
population, are now fully vaccinated.
More than 80 of Illinois’ 102 counties have expanded COVID-19
vaccine eligibility to all Illinois residents 16 and older.
Vaccine eligibility will be open statewide starting April 12.
Pritzker’s administration also announced Monday it will be
deploying rural vaccination teams to six counties this week with
the capacity to fully vaccinate about 8,000 people.
The mobile teams, operated by members of the Illinois National
Guard, will be deployed to Kanakee, Vermilion, Livingston,
Coles, DeWitt, and White counties. The teams will be supplied
with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Although a majority of the state’s counties have already
expanded vaccine eligibility to those 16 or older, under the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Emergency Use Authorization
only those 18 or older can receive the one-shot Johnson &
Johnson vaccine.
“Our Rural Vaccination Program is seeing extraordinary results
in its first weeks and I’m thrilled to see this program expand
to additional counties,” Pritzker said in a news release. “These
sites bring thousands of doses directly into the community,
reducing transportation barriers and ensuring residents in all
corners of Illinois have access to this life-saving vaccine.”
The rural vaccination program has vaccinated approximately 4,700
people in its first two weeks of operation, according to a news
release. Of the state’s 900 vaccine locations, 43 of them are
operated by more than 1,480 Illinois National Guard Troops. To
date, these locations have administered more than 734,114 doses
of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
news service covering state government and distributed to more
than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the
Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation.
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