Illinois becomes 5th state to dole out 4 million COVID-19 vaccines

Illinois surpassed a major milestone this weekend, becoming the fifth state and first in the Midwest to administer 4 million COVID-19 vaccines, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Sunday.

Illinois joined California, Florida, New York and Texas as the only states in the U.S. to dole out 4 million or more vaccines over the last month, narrowly edging out Pennsylvania, which became the sixth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database. In total, the Prairie State has administered 4,040,302 vaccine doses over the last three months, including 96,332 on Saturday, state health officials said.

The news follows a record-setting day of administering shots on Friday, when the state reported 152,697 vaccines were given.

The state’s seven-day rolling average of shots injected per day is 97,441.

Still, only 1,488,244 Illinoisans — about 11.7% of the state’s population — are considered fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. In Chicago, only 261,745 residents — or 9.7% of the city’s population — are fully vaccinated, the state’s data shows.

With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout ramping up, Illinois’ coronavirus infection rate has remained close to an all-time low.

State health officials on Sunday announced 1,484 new probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases and an additional 19 virus-related deaths. Five of those fatalities were reported in the Chicago area.

The new cases were found among the 65,028 tests processed by state health officials in the last 24 hours, for a daily positivity rate of about 2.3%.

The statewide seven-day positivity rate checked in at 2.2% — up a hair from Saturday. That metric, which experts follow to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading, has stayed below 3% since Valentine’s Day.

Statewide, hospitalizations have also dropped to near-record lows. As of Saturday night, 1,141 beds were occupied statewide by coronavirus patients, with 238 of those patients in intensive care units and 94 on ventilators, officials said.

More than 1.2 million people in Illinois have been infected, and 20,943 have died over the last year.