Illinois health officials have reported 5,862 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases in the state on Wednesday, along with 97 additional deaths attributed to the virus.
According to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Wednesday's new cases bring the state to 1,046,030 confirmed and probable cases of the virus since the pandemic began, along with 17,840 deaths.
Over the last 24 hours, 76,107 new test results have been returned to state laboratories, bringing the statewide testing total to 14,339,584.
According to a press release from IDPH, the preliminary seven-day statewide positivity rate on all tests performed dropped to 7.3%, while the positivity rate on unique individuals tested now stands at 8.3% during that time.
Hospitalizations increased slightly Wednesday, with 3,642 patients currently hospitalized due to COVID-19. Of those patients, 749 are currently in intensive care units, while 386 are on ventilators.
As of Tuesday night, 703,525 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been delivered statewide. Additionally, 268,525 doses of the vaccine have been allocated to pharmacies administering to long term care facilities.
According to data from IDPH, Illinois health officials have administered a total of 384,658 vaccines, including 48,811 to long term care facilities.
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As numbers decline in some regions, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has indicated that Tier 3 mitigations could be rolled back beginning this week in areas that are hitting key benchmarks in hospitalizations, hospital bed availability and positivity rate.
Pritzker is also pushing for more federal help in acquiring doses of two approved coronavirus vaccines, rolling out plans to initiate Phase 1B of the state’s vaccination plan once a sufficient number of health care workers and long-term care workers and residents have received the shots.
