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CHICAGO — The Illinois Department of Public Health reported Friday that 88 of the state’s 102 counties — including Ford County — are at high levels for community transmission of COVID-19, as rated by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
The number is up from 86 last week, 74 two weeks before, 63 three weeks before and 46 four weeks before.
Ford County was among 33 counties listed as high on Friday, down from 43 last week. Ford County was also listed at a high level last Friday.
An additional 55 counties were listed as moderate on Friday, up from 43 last week.
Besides Ford County, other East Central Illinois rated high Friday included Champaign, Macon and Piatt counties. DeWitt, Kankakee, Livingston, McLean and Vermilion counties are listed as moderate while Iroquois County is listed as low.
“Illinois continues to see most of its communities at high risk for COVID-19, including 33 counties that are currently at high risk,” said Director Vohra. “While we are seeing some improvement in the number of high-risk communities compared to last week, I encourage Illinoisans to continue to use preventative measures as we enter the holiday weekend and enjoy our gatherings on holiday.”
To determine a county’s level of community transmission as low, moderate or high, the CDC looks at three metrics: new COVID-19 hospital admissions and new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population over the past seven days, and the seven-day average percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.
In high-level counties, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people wear an appropriate mask indoors in public, regardless of their vaccination status, including in schools and other indoor settings. community setting. They should also consider avoiding non-essential activities indoors in public where they may be exposed.
On Friday, the state health department announced 23,793 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois over the past week, including 82 deaths related to COVID-19. Since the pandemic began, there have been 3,953,928 cases in Illinois, including 35,714 deaths related to COVID-19.
As of Thursday night, 1,814 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 184 are in the intensive-care unit and 117 are on ventilators. The initial seven-day statewide case rate was 187 cases per 100,000 Illinoisans.
A total of 25,674,890 vaccines were administered in Illinois on Friday. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily was 13,188 doses, including the bivalent booster and initial doses. Last week, 92,315 doses were reported administered in Illinois.
More than 2 million Illinoisans have received a dose of the new bivalent vaccines since they were approved for use in early September. The CDC approved two new bivalent booster vaccines on September 2 that include an mRNA component of the original strain to provide an immune response that broadly protects against COVID-19 and an additional mRNA component common between the omicron variant BA .4 and BA .5 lines to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant. Updated boosters are available at pharmacies, hospitals and other healthcare providers.
Of the total Illinois population, more than 78 percent have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine; more than 71 percent have completed their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines; and more than 18 percent of the vaccinated population received a bivalent booster dose, according to CDC data.
The federal government has established a website — www.covid.gov — that provides an all-purpose toolkit with information on how to obtain masks, treatment, vaccines and testing resources.
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