Illinois health officials on Friday reported 21,334 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 92 additional deaths and more than 215,000 new vaccine doses administered.
In all, 1,457,687 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began. The additional deaths reported this week bring the state to 23,594 confirmed COVID fatalities.
The state has administered 421,009 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 27 million tests conducted during the pandemic.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate on all tests rose to 5.9% from 5.2% last week which was up from 4.7% the week before, officials said. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests was up to 5.1% from 4.6% the week before, 4% two weeks prior and 3.3% three weeks ago.
Over the past seven days, a total of 215,157 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents - up from around 176,000 the week prior and bringing the state’s average to 30,737 daily vaccination doses over the last week, per IDPH data.
More than 13.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December. More than 59% of adult residents in the state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 76% receiving at least one dose.
As of midnight, 1,652 patients are currently hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 345 are in ICU beds, and 162 are on ventilators. All three metrics are a reported increase since last Friday.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker previously announced that all students and teachers in schools will be required to wear masks while indoors, as state officials take steps to try to slow the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19.
Pritzker says that the new requirement will take effect immediately, and will also apply to all students and coaches participating in indoor sports and other activities.
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He also announced that employees at state-run congregant care facilities, including correctional facilities, veterans’ homes, and psychiatric hospitals, will be required to receive COVID vaccinations, effective Oct. 4.
