Hospitalizations for COVID-19 continue on a steady decline

[February 24, 2021]  By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois
[e-mail]

SPRINGFIELD – Hospitalizations and positivity rates for COVID-19 in Illinois continued on a steady decline Tuesday, decreasing for the 13th straight week.

As of Monday night, the state reported 1,488 individuals were in the hospital with COVID-19, including 361 in intensive care unit beds and 172 on ventilators.

On a weekly average basis, hospitalizations declined sharply once again for the period from Monday, Feb. 15 to Sunday, Feb. 21. For that period, the state saw an average 1,603 hospital beds in use for COVID-19 per day, a decrease of 329, or 17 percent, from the one-week period prior.

The number of COVID-19 patients using ICU beds decreased by 14 percent, or 62, from the week prior, to 371 in use on average each day for the same period. Ventilators use for COVID-19 also decreased by roughly 17 percent, with 177 in use on average for the period.

Meanwhile, the state has fully vaccinated roughly 4.6 percent of its population, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, with 43,282 doses administered over the previous 24 hours.

A database compiled by the New York Times showed Illinois was last of the 50 states in percent of population that has received two doses as of Monday. It stands in 22nd for percent of population to have received at least one dose, with 14 percent having done so.

Over the past seven days, the state has averaged 55,917 doses administered each day on average. More than 2.2 million doses of the vaccine have been administered thus far, meaning the state has distributed roughly 82 percent of the 2.75 million doses received.

The graph shows the seven-day weekly average, from Monday to Sunday since the state first began reporting the numbers, of hospital bed usage by COVID-19 patients. The graphs will be updated by Capitol News Illinois every Monday. (Credit: Jerry Nowicki of Capitol News Illinois)

Transmission rates for the virus remain near their pandemic lows as well, with the state logging a 2.8 percent rolling seven-day average case positivity rate Tuesday. IDPH reported 1,665 new confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 among 61,400 test results reported over the previous 24 hours.

Deaths for the virus have slowed as well, with fewer than 100 new confirmed deaths reported for the past 12 days. On Tuesday, the state reported 27 additional deaths, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 20,330.

There have now been nearly 1.2 million confirmed or probable cases of the virus since the pandemic began among more than 17.7 million total tests performed. According to IDPH, there have been 43 confirmed cases of a COVID-19 variant, 42 of which are the variant first found in the United Kingdom, another of which was first found in South Africa.

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.