Doctors are urging everyone to get their flu shot this year, especially children. With more kids soon becoming eligible for the Pfizer COVID vaccine, pediatricians want parents to know it’s okay for kids to get both shots at the same time. NBC 5’s Lauren Petty reports.
State health officials say they are seeing a flattening trend in coronavirus metrics across Illinois, and according to the latest Illinois Department of Public Health data, those improvements are coming in the forms of declining hospitalizations and test positivity rates.
One of the most dramatic trends is the rapid decline in positivity rates on tests in Region 5, a region comprised of 20 counties in the southern tip of Illinois. According to IDPH data, the positivity rate has plummeted from 10.2% as of Sept. 16 to 6.4% as of Sept. 24.
That number had been over 10% for more than a month, with the region struggling to keep up with the influx of COVID hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
According to IDPH data, the number of COVID patients being hospitalized in the region has either decreased or remained stable on eight of the previous 10 days. ICU bed availability is also very slowly rebounding, currently sitting at 4%, with five beds out of 85 available.
In fact, COVID positivity rates are decreasing in nearly every one of the 11 health care regions in the state. Outside of Region 5, only one other health care region, Region 6, has a positivity rate higher than 5%, and several, including the city of Chicago, have dropped back below the 3% mark, according to IDPH data.
Hospitalizations are also improving in most areas of the state, with current hospital populations dropping by more than 400 patients in the last 17 days. Just under 1,900 COVID patients remain hospitalized in the state, with that number slowly dropping each day,
Intensive care unit admissions are also down statewide, with 493 patients currently in the critical care units.
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Here is a region by region breakdown of the current COVID metrics across the state.
Region 1 (Northwest Illinois):
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Positivity Rate – 4.2% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 18% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends – 8/10 days increasing
Region 2 (West-Central Illinois):
Positivity Rate – 4.2%
ICU Bed Availability – 19% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends – 8/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 3 (West Illinois):
Positivity Rate – 3.8% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 14% (increasing)
Hospitalization Trends – 5/10 days increasing
Region 4 (Southwest Illinois):
Positivity Rate – 4.6% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 26% (decreasing)
Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 5 (South Illinois):
Positivity Rate – 6.4% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 4% (increasing)
Hospitalization Trends – 8/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 6 (East-Central Illinois):
Positivity Rate – 5.4% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 20% (increasing)
Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 7 (Will, Kankakee counties):
Positivity Rate – 4.4% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 22% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends – 8/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 8 (Kane, DuPage counties):
Positivity Rate – 3.2% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 25% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends – 6/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 9 (McHenry, Lake counties):
Positivity Rate – 3.3% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability – 15% (decreasing)
Hospitalization Trends – 7/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 10 (Suburban Cook County):
Positivity Rate – 2.9% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability – 16% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 11 (Chicago):
Positivity Rate – 2.6% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability – 17% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days decreasing or stable
