“We are focused on bringing vaccines to people instead of people needing” to go somewhere to get vaccinated, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said at a Monday morning news conference.
People getting the vaccine continues to be the best way to end the pandemic, reopen businesses and have the world return to normal, officials have said. More people getting vaccinated also means there are fewer chances for variants of COVID-19 to develop and spread, which may endanger people and pose a threat to business and economic reopening efforts.
“The quickest way for life to return to normal is for more people to get vaccinated,” Ezike said.The state is requesting fewer vaccine doses from the federal government due to the drop in demand, Gov. JB Pritzker said.
There’s still a high risk for spreading COVID-19 among unvaccinated people.
As people continue to get sick and die from COVID-19, officials have urged people to take precautions. Continue wearing a mask, staying socially distant and getting vaccinated, to help ensure another surge does not occur and people stay safe.
The most recent coronavirus victims included 14 people from Cook County, including five people in their 50s. At least 22,369 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 2,356 deaths are probably related to the virus, according to the state. The state reported 1,841 cases over the past day. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 1,363,507.
Illinois is administering 72,767 vaccine doses per day, based on a seven-day rolling average. Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 10,229,330 vaccine doses of the 12,730,155 provided to them.
The city is seeing an average of five deaths per day, down from seven per day the week prior.
An average of 388 confirmed cases are being reported per day, which is a 21 percent decrease from the previous week. At the same time, testing has fallen 5 percent since a week ago.