COVID-19 hospitalizations drop below 1,000 in Illinois
As Illinois once again returns to making masks optional at most indoor public spaces, state health officials are reporting 943 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide.
That's the fewest since July 31, 2021.
Of those currently hospitalized with the virus, 157 are in intensive care - a metric that's also at its lowest point since July 25, 2021, according to Illinois Department of Public Health figures.
On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its method for monitoring the effects of COVID-19 from infection figures to hospital bed availability.
Federal officials unveiled a new system of determining risk levels in communities and recommended indoor masking requirements dropped in any counties where the risk level wasn't high.
According to CDC data, roughly 70% of the nation's population lives in areas where the risk level is either "low" or "moderate," and therefore can forgo indoor masking.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker had already planned to lift the mask mandate for many public indoor locations beginning Monday, but after Friday's federal announcement, he also advised schools that hadn't already done so could make mask-wearing optional.
Cook County as well as the five collar counties are listed as having low community levels on the CDC website, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/community-levels.
Only 21 Illinois counties are listed as high level communities, mainly in the southern part of the state.
"Things seem to be pretty good," Pritzker said Monday at an event at Navy Pier. "Hospitalizations are way down; cases are way down, and we hope that we can sustain that through the spring and summer, and frankly forevermore."
Private businesses and venues can still require masks or proof of vaccination to gain entrance, state officials note.
Pritzker also urged anyone who felt unsafe in various settings to wear a mask.
"If you feel like you should wear a mask anywhere - indoors, outdoors, in a room with more people than you think is comfortable, you should wear a mask," he said.
IDPH officials are also reporting 109 more deaths since Friday, as well as 4,483 more infections.
That brings the state's death toll from COVID-19 to 32,763, while 3,031,220 infections have been recorded since the outset of the pandemic.
Illinois ended February with 1,850 COVID-19 deaths recorded for the month. That's down nearly 40% from January's death toll, but 44.6% more than in February 2021, IDPH records show.
The state's seven-day case positivity rate is at 1.7%, down from 2.0% a week ago.
IDPH officials are reporting 35,868 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered statewide since Friday as well.
Vaccine providers in Illinois have now administered 21,106,414 doses since they became available in December 2020.
The CDC is also reporting 67.4% of the state's 12.7 million residents are now fully vaccinated. Of those fully vaccinated, 49.1% have received a booster dose.