Illinois health officials on Saturday reported 3,345 new cases of COVID-19 as well as 65 additional deaths attributed to the virus.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Friday's new cases brought the statewide total number of confirmed cases to 1,123,873 since the pandemic began. The fatalities reported Friday lifted the death toll to 19,203.
In the last 24 hours, Illinois officials said 107,802 test specimens were returned to state laboratories, putting the state at 15,952,421 tests performed during the pandemic.
The seven-day rolling positivity rate on all tests was 4%, remaining the same from the day before. The positivity rate for unique individuals tested dropped slightly to 5.1% Saturday.
As of Friday night, 2,600 patients in Illinois were in the hospital with coronavirus, including 522 patients in Illinois in intensive care units and 284 on ventilators.
Also as of Friday night, 1,333,475 coronavirus vaccines had been delivered to providers across Illinois, while 496,100 doses had been allocated to the federal government’s Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities, IDPH said. That brought the total number of doses sent to Illinois to 1,829,575.
A total of 57,292 doses were administered Friday, officials said, lifting the total number of vaccine doses given in the state to 945,137, including 145,587 for long-term care facilities. The latest figures brought the 7-day rolling average administered daily to 41,045 doses, according to IDPH data.
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IDPH announced Saturday that Region 11, which includes Chicago, is "on track" to move to Phase 4 of coronavirus mitigations by Sunday.
However, the city of Chicago won't permit bars and restaurants to increase indoor dining capacity even though Illinois health officials are expected to ease restrictions in the city as a result of progress in the fight against COVID-19, city officials announced.
Under Tier 1 mitigations, indoor service is limited to lesser of 25% or 25 persons per room, no tables exceeding four people are permitted indoors and indoor service must be suspended if an establishment is not serving food. Additionally, all bars and restaurants must close at 11 p.m., and reservations are required for all parties.
Chicago could move to the next level of restrictions, Phase 4, if the test positivity rate is below 6.5% percent for three consecutive days, at least 20% of staffed intensive care unit hospital beds are available and no sustained increase in hospitalized COVID patients is reported for seven out of 10 days.
