Vaccinations rising statewide, health officials say

Public Health officials said Thursday the state’s seven-day average reached a high of 98,166 daily doses.

Omelan Kluchnyk, 70, waits in line Tuesday outside the COVID-19 mass vaccination site that was set up on the parking lot of the United Center.

Omelan Kluchnyk, 70, waits in line Tuesday outside the COVID-19 mass vaccination site that was set up on the parking lot of the United Center.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

Illinois Public Health officials said Thursday the state’s seven-day average for vaccine shots reached a high of 98,166 doses.

Two weeks ago, the rolling average was 69,736 doses a day.

The highest single day number is 134,239, all administered March 5. On Wednesday, 112,776 doses were administered in Illinois.

The state Department of Public Health also reported 1,700 new cases of COVID-19 and 55 additional deaths. Thirty people in Cook County died of the virus, including a woman in her 20s and another woman over 100 years old.

The new cases were diagnosed from 89,893 tests and lowered Illinois’ average positivity rate to 2.2% — hovering near the lowest it’s ever been.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are as low as they’ve been since July, with 1,118 beds occupied Wednesday night. Of those, 231 patients were in intensive care and 102 patients were on ventilators.

The state’s average daily fatality rate over the past week is 28, down from 53 a month ago.

More than 1.2 million Illinois residents have been infected since the pandemic began a year ago.

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