The daily average of new COVID-19 cases increased by 70% in April compared to the March average, while hospitalizations increased by 32%, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Combating this worrying trend was a 23% decrease in average daily virus deaths in April compared to March, while the state hit another record on Thursday with 164,462 COVID-19 vaccines in its arms. One in five in Illinois is now fully vaccinated.
New COVID-19 infections rose to 4,004 on Friday, the highest since January 29, with 21 people dying from respiratory illness.
The seven-day average for vaccines is 118,336 a day – a figure that must rise significantly if Illinois wants to avoid another throat shot on Monday, when inoculations open for every resident 16 years of age and older, an expert said in logistics.
“I don’t know if we managed to get through logjam fully,” said Hani S. Mahmassani, director of the Northwestern University Transportation Center. “Come on Monday, I think all bets are off.
“There are probably more people now becoming eligible (than) that we’ve vaccinated in the last four months. And all of these people want to get vaccinated at the same time.”
Currently, eligibility is limited to people aged 65 and over, key workers such as firefighters and priests and people with serious medical conditions. Frustration was high in February and through most of March, especially among the elderly who could not find appointments, but it was daylight in the past few weeks, with about 1 million doses per week. coming from the federal government.
Mahmassani estimated that between 3 million and 3.5 million people could jump into the fight against vaccines on Monday.
“Unless we increase the vaccination rate, I think there will be a few weeks of intense frustration, which I hope will not turn into vaccine rage.”
Noting that the state has a significant inventory of doses that have not yet been administered, “I think we should reach at least a seven-day average of 150,000,” compared to 110,000 to 120,000, Mahmassani said.
Governor JB Pritzker addressed the ebb and flow of COVID-19 metrics at an event on Friday when asked about the reopening of several activities and businesses in the state.
“I want to go back and ask about the virus when we can open things up,” Pritzker said. “This virus is so unpredictable, but we are heading in the right direction.”
He noted that the number of hospitalizations, a measure that is essential to alleviate pandemic restrictions, is still growing.
Complicating matters, data from the US Centers for Disease Control show that Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine supply will drop by about 85% next week due to manufacturing issues.
Expressing concern about the daily growth of new cases, DuPage County Health Department Executive Director Karen Ayala warned that “our residents may have a false sense of security because of the vaccine available now.
“While the number of people vaccinated is growing every day, the fact is that the pandemic is not over yet and we still have about 400,000 residents eligible for vaccination in our county,” she said.
The federal government has delivered 8,841,285 doses of vaccine to Illinois since distribution began in mid-December and 6,871,645 photos were administered.
To date, 2,665,722 people have been completely vaccinated – 20.9% of the 12.7 million people in Illinois. Vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna require two doses a few weeks apart. On Wednesday, 154,201 shots were fired.
The state positivity rate for COVID-19 cases is 4.2%, based on an average of seven days.
The total number of cases in the state is 1,273,200, and 21,476 in Illinois have died since the pandemic began.
In April, the average daily number of new cases amounted to 3,179, while in March it was 1,867. This month, the daily number of people dying from COVID-19 reached 20, compared to 26 in March.
And in April, average daily hospitalizations had an average of 1,613 patients, compared to 1,216 a day in March. Patients in the hospital with COVID-19 reached 1,808 as of Thursday night.
Laboratories have processed 101,737 virus tests in the last 24 hours.