Nearly 400,000 Illinoisans have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, public health officials announced Saturday.
Those 399,166 residents who have received both required shots account for only 3.1% of the state population, but the Illinois Department of Public Health says with 1.7 million total doses administered over the past two months, about 10% of Illinoisans have gotten at least one so far.
A total of 79,704 shots went into arms Friday, which trails only the 95,375 administered a day earlier for the most ever in a single day.
The state’s rolling average of shots given per day is up to a new high of 61,384. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he expects that rate to keep ballooning as the federal government ships out doses in larger quantities and a third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson nears federal approval.
“Making an appointment is still no doubt a frustrating effort that requires enormous patience, but we still have not received enough vaccine from the federal government for everyone who’s eligible,” Pritzker said Friday.
As the vaccination effort ramps up, officials reported another 2,092 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed statewide among 84,990 tests, decreasing the average statewide testing positivity rate to 2.9%. That key indicator of transmission hasn’t been lower since early July.
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COVID-19 hospital admissions are at just a fraction of their peak levels, too, with 1,892 beds occupied statewide as of Friday night. That figure hit 6,175 in late November.
The state logged an additional 53 deaths attributed to the virus, which is about average for the state in November, but that rate is less than half what it was in early January.
Eighteen of the latest victims were from the Chicago area, including a Lake County woman in her 40s.
Over the past 11 months, the virus has infected close to 1.2 million people across the state and killed 19,926 of them.
