Illinois public health officials reported 7,214 new cases of COVID-19 and 103 deaths Monday as health workers around the country begin receiving the first round of vaccinations for the deadly virus.
Monday’s figures continue a grim streak of daily death tolls over 100 people. The deaths are largely from Cook County, which recorded 88 deaths.
The new cases came from a batch of 92,256 tests in the last 24 hours.
As of Sunday night, 4,951 people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 were reported to be in the hospital. Of that number, 1,070 patients were in intensive care and 621 patients were on ventilators.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate for cases from Dec. 7 to Dec. 13 decreased slightly to 8.7% from 9.1% for the week ending Dec. 12.
The state is expected to receive 109,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the federal government by Dec. 19.
The Federal Drug Administration issued emergency-use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine late Friday, kicking off one of the largest vaccination campaigns in U.S. history.
Under what J.B. Pritzker called “Phase 1A” of distribution, frontline hospital and health care workers will be first in line for vaccines, followed by long-term care facility residents, essential workers and people 65 or older with underlying health conditions.
About 23,000 of Illinois’ first shipment of vaccines will be sent to Chicago, with the remaining 86,000 earmarked for the state’s 50 counties suffering the highest per capita coronavirus death rates.
That includes suburban Cook County, plus Lake, Kane, DuPage, Will and Kankakee counties. Local health departments are responsible for coming up with their own community distribution plans.
