information gathered by Melanie Jongsma
LANSING, Ill. (April 22, 2022) – Today IDPH reported 19,551 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 58 deaths since April 15, 2022. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 3,114,036 cases, including 33,568 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois since the beginning of the pandemic.
As of last night, 613 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 82 patients were in the ICU and 26 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators. Illinois has a total of 20,987 medical and surgical beds in hospitals throughout the state, and 3,535 ICU beds.
IDPH officials noted that the case rate has been slowly rising in the state and that although hospitalizations and deaths are relatively stable, four Illinois counties are now rated by the CDC as having a Medium Community Level. These counties are DuPage, Champaign, McLean, and Piatt. At the Medium Community Level, persons who are elderly or immunocompromised (at risk of severe outcomes) are advised to wear a mask in indoor public places.
IDPH advises members of the public to talk to their provider immediately if they test positive for COVID-19 so that COVID-19 treatment can be prescribed if necessary within five days of starting to feel sick.
The federal government established a new website that provides an all-purpose toolkit that provides information on how to obtain masks, treatment, vaccines, and testing resources for all areas of the country: https://www.covid.gov/.
IDPH also announced today it has started sending text messages to some 2.5 million Illinois residents to remind them they are due for a COVID-19 vaccination or a booster shot. The messages are being sent to people who have their vaccination records in the Illinois Comprehensive Automated Immunization Registry Exchange (I-CARE), a web-based immunization record-sharing application developed by IDPH that allows healthcare providers to share the immunization records of Illinois residents with other physicians statewide.
The text messages say: “IDPH records indicate that you or someone in your care is due for a COVID-19 shot. For more info please visit: https://dph.illinois.gov/COVIDup2date.”
The link takes the recipient to a web page that provides information about how to locate a vaccination provider. If recipients would like to opt out of future COVID-19 vaccine reminder texts, they can reply “Stop.”
Lansing
The South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association maintains a COVID dashboard aggregating data from villages throughout the south suburbs. Highlights from Lansing are listed below:
- 7-day new cases: 25 (last week: 13)
- Cumulative total cases to date: 6,864
- Cumulative total of COVID-19 deaths: 28 (Previous reported total: 28)
- Seven-day positivity rate: 4.14% (Last Friday: 1.55%)
Illinois interactive graphs
The graphs below are created by HiGeorge and are “live,” so they are continually updated as new data are released from official sources.
