An Illinois health care region that saw all of its intensive care unit beds filled up with patients last week has been making progress in reducing overall hospitalizations, but ICU bed availability remains low amid a stubborn increase in COVID cases.
According to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Region 5, comprised of 20 counties in the southern tip of Illinois, has two ICU beds available out of the 90 staffed beds in its hospital systems.
Fewer than 5% of the region’s ICU beds have been available over the last week, according to IDPH data.
The region is seeing some good news in other areas however, including in its number of overall COVID hospitalizations, which have decreased or remained steady each of the last nine days. On Sept. 11, there were 161 patients hospitalized due to COVID in the region, but as of Monday at midnight that number has dropped to 131.
The region’s positivity rate on COVID tests did go up slightly on Sept. 18, the last date for which data is available, but remained under the 10% threshold, sitting at 9.7%. That figure had remained at 10% or greater for more than a month prior to a recent drop in the metric, according to officials.
COVID hospitalizations in the state overall have been on a decline in recent days after topping out at more than 2,300 on Sept. 8. The number now stands at just over 1,900, continuing recent declines in the figure.
The overall ICU census among COVID patients in Illinois is now at 463, down from a high of 554 as recently as Sept. 3.
News
Here is a region-by-region breakdown of COVID metrics in the state.
Region 1 (Northwest Illinois) –
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Positivity Rate: 5% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 16% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 6/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 2 (West-Central Illinois) –
Positivity Rate: 4.9% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 17% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 10/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 3 (West Illinois) –
Positivity Rate: 4.9% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 16% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 8/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 4 (Southwest Illinois) –
Positivity Rate: 5.2% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 28% (increasing)
Hospitalization Trends: 10/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 5 (South Illinois) –
Positivity Rate: 9.7% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 1% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 9/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 6 (East-Central Illinois) –
Positivity Rate: 6.6% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 16% (decreasing)
Hospitalization Trends: 7/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 7 (Will, Kankakee counties) –
Positivity Rate: 4.6% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 23% (decreasing)
Hospitalization Trends: 5/10 days increasing
Region 8 (Kane, DuPage counties) –
Positivity Rate: 3.7% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 25% (increasing)
Hospitalization Trends: 10/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 9 (McHenry, Lake counties) –
Positivity Rate: 3.4% (increasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 18% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 7/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 10 (Suburban Cook County) –
Positivity Rate: 3% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 15% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 8/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 11 (Chicago) –
Positivity Rate: 3% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 17% (decreasing)
Hospitalization Trends: 7/10 days decreasing or stable
