Illinois reports 1,585 new COVID-19 cases, additional 35 virus-related deaths

Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate has remained below 3% for an entire week for the first time in seven months.

State health officials on Sunday announced 1,585 new probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases and an additional 35 virus-related deaths.

The cases were detected among the 75,269 tests processed by the Illinois Department of Public Health in the last day for a daily test positivity rate of about 2.1%. That lowered the statewide seven-day positivity rate to 2.7%, marking the first time since July that metric has been below 3% for seven consecutive days.

State health officials also announced 13,433 coronavirus vaccines were administered Saturday, the fewest shots injected in a day in nearly a month. On Friday, 73,212 vaccines were injected into the arms of Illinoisans, marking the fourth-highest single day total.

Illinois saw a drop in vaccine distribution over the last week in part due to heavy snow and delayed vaccine shipments from the federal government. Over the last week, the state averaged 52,658 doses administered each day — a 16.3% decrease from the previous week. During the span of Feb. 8-14, Illinois issued an average of 62,927 shots per day.

In total, more than 2.15 million vaccines have been administered in Illinois. About 13.1% of those shots were given to people at long-term care facilities.

As vaccine distribution continues, coronavirus hospitalizations across the state remain on a gradual decline. As of Saturday, 1,468 beds were occupied statewide by coronavirus patients, with 356 of those patients in intensive care units and 170 on ventilators, officials said.

The virus has still claimed an average of 44 lives per day over the last week. Ten of Sunday’s 35 fatalities were reported in the Chicago area. The state’s pandemic death toll has risen to 20,269.

Since March, nearly 1.2 million people in Illinois have been confirmed to have the virus among the more than 17.6 million tests.