* That’s a jump of well over 900 cases in a single day with an accompanying uptick in the positivity rate. Press release…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,793 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 20 additional deaths.

- Champaign County: 1 female 60s
- Cook County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
- Franklin County: 1 male 70s
- Fulton County: 1 female 70s
- Henry County: 1 female 60s
- Kane County: 2 females 70s
- Macon County: 1 male 50s
- McHenry County: 1 male 70s
- McLean County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s
- Rock Island County: 1 female 80s
- Shelby County: 1 male 60s
- St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
- Stephenson County: 1 female 90s
- Winnebago County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 90s
- Woodford County: 1 male 80s

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,227,708 cases, including 21,136 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 79,381 specimens for a total of 19,805,516. As of last night, 1,261 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 269 patients were in the ICU and 130 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from March 17-23, 2021 is 2.8%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from March 17-23, 2021 is 3.1%.

A total of doses of 5,853,915 vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago. In addition, approximately 414,900 doses total have been allocated to the federal government’s Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities. This brings the total Illinois doses to 6,268,815. A total of 5,036,364 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight, including 363,711 for long-term care facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 97,680 doses. Yesterday, 107,219 doses were reported administered in Illinois.

Vaccine data has been adjusted to address the previously reported data discrepancy, and now includes doses administered on previous days that were initially excluded from the system. They were not uploaded because the records included only partial information about recipients. In order to more accurately reflect the total number of doses actually administered, changes to software coding were made to allow the system to accept reports with only partial information. This accounts for roughly 100,000 doses. IDPH has reached out to our pharmacy partners to remind them of the importance of entering information in all fields when vaccine is administered.

IDPH has also updated its long-term care facility interim guidance to reflect guidance from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The updated guidance allows more interaction with visitors at long-term care facilities and can be found on the IDPH website.

*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.