Illinois once again smashes one-day COVID-19 case count

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WREX) �� It's been a record-setting week for all the wrong reasons when it comes to COVID-19 in Illinois.

On Dec. 6, the state reported 44,089 new cases of the virus, a new record high. It's the first time since the pandemic started that the state has reported more than 40,000 new cases in one day.

Looking at the past week (Dec. 30-Jan. 6), there's been four days with more than 30,000 new cases. There's only one day with a new case count BELOW 20,000 (14,570 cases on Jan. 2).

For reference, when the virus surged in the fall/winter of 2020 into 2021 (Nov. 1-Jan. 28) there was only TWO days above 15,000 cases. On Nov. 5, 2020, the state reported 17,608 new cases and on Nov. 13, the state reported 15,415 additional cases.

The current surge of the virus is largely in part of the omicron variant, which doctors have said is easy to transmit, but isn't considered as severe as the delta variant, especially if you're vaccinated.

However, there's still plenty of people unvaccinated in Illinois. According to health officials, 60% of residents are fully vaccinated and 67% have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

As doctors have said since the vaccine has become available, those who are unvaccinated are more likely to end up severely ill and end up in the hospital.

During a news conference on Monday, Gov. JB Pritzker said unvaccinated patients filling up 85% of hospital beds, 95% of ICU beds and nearly 100% of ventilators.

COVID-19 hospitalizations higher than they were last time of this year. An average of 550 people are being admitted each day with COVID-19, according to Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Dr. Ezike says of those 550 people being admitted each day, 90% are not vaccinated.

It's not just adults being admitted to the hospital, either. Gov. Pritzker says the number of children entering hospitals with the virus has nearly tripled since the beginning of December, a cause for concern for the governor.

"I fear the climb in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 will only grow, especially for children younger than 5 who cannot be vaccinated," Gov. Pritzker said.

According to IDPH's data, the state currently only has 265 ICU beds available out a possible 2,978.