While Illinois health officials reported Tuesday the largest one-day increase in the state’s COVID-19 vaccine, they also observed a significant increase in hospitalizations for respiratory disease.
According to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, an additional 454,410 doses of vaccine were added to the Illinois supply.
But hospitalizations also rose more than 7.4% from the previous day, relative to many public health officials.
“While we have more and more doses of vaccine, we cannot drop the guard, especially with these new virulent strains circulating,” said IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike.
Since vaccine launches began in mid-December, Illinois has received 6,211,205 doses of the three approved vaccine types. In that time, 77.6% of those doses have gone to Illinois residents and workers, according to state figures.
IDPH officials reported that over the past 24 hours, an additional 70,252 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered throughout Illinois.
This brings the total number of inoculations performed statewide to 4,818,097. Vaccine providers make an average of 91,000 vaccines a day.
Hospitals across the state reported treating 1,270 patients for COVID-19 infections. Of those hospitalized, 272 are in intensive care. Both figures are significantly higher than the previous day’s totals.
State hospitals reported 88 new COVID-19 patients the previous day. Hospitals have added 138 COVID-19 patients over the past two days. This is the biggest two-day growth in hospitalizations since early January.
There were also 39 more COVID-19 patients in ICU beds than the day before, according to state figures. This is the largest one-day increase since December 8th. But at that time there were almost 1,200 COVID-19 patients in ICU beds, compared to the fewer than 300 who were currently being treated in ICUs.
The increase in hospitalizations did not go unnoticed by state health officials.
“We’ve come this far and we’re very close to a more normal time, but we already see some related to the plateaus and even the increase in hospitalizations and cases,” Ezike said. “We’re not out of the woods yet, so keep wearing your masks, avoid large crowds, and keep a six-foot distance.”
It’s been nearly a month since there were many COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the state, according to IDPH data.
The state is divided into 11 health regions that help health officials determine the need for mitigation initiatives if cases and hospitalizations grow above established levels.
Region 10 of suburban Cook County has experienced an increase in the average number of seven-day COVID-19 patients hospitalized in nine of the last 10 days. Hospitals in suburban Cook County now have an average of 356 patients a day receiving COVID-19 infections. One week ago, the region’s seven-day average was 322 patients.
Region 9, which contains Lake and McHenry counties, has seen the hospitalization rate increase over the past four days. Hospitals in these two counties treat 55 patients with COVID-19 daily, up from 49 on March 18.
Regions 1 and 2, which comprise more than two dozen counties in the northwestern part of the state, have also seen spikes in hospitalizations in recent weeks, according to IDPH records.
IDPH officials also reported Tuesday that 13 more Illinois residents have died from COVID-19, while the daily count of new cases was 1,832.
The state’s death toll from respiratory disease is now 21,116 and 1,224,915 have been infected since the pandemic began.
Chicago public health officials updated the travel orders, which require people arriving from certain states to provide evidence of a recent negative COVID-19 test or a mandatory quarantine for 10 days. Michigan is now on this list.
Dr. Alison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said all public health departments are looking at not just gross figures, but growth rates of all metrics.
“These are things that are predictive of some potential problems,” he said. “If we see a big increase in cases that is not accompanied by an increase in hospitalization or death, I don’t care so much.”
The state’s seven-day case positivity rate is now 2.5%. It has dropped slightly from the previous day, but is still higher than it was just a week ago. The positivity of the case shows the percentage of evidence that led to new cases of the disease. An average of seven days is used to smooth out any anomalies in the daily notification of new cases and evidence.