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New cases of COVID-19 lowest since July, Illinois public health officials report

The State Journal-Register - 3/1/2021

Mar. 2—The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,143 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the lowest single-day total since July 28, as well as 20 new deaths of people with coronavirus disease.

Experts from the department have said the generally downward trend of new cases and deaths statewide is encouraging as COVID-19 vaccine supplies slowly ramp up. But they have cautioned people to continue to practice social distancing and mask-wearing in public, and avoid gatherings of people from multiple households even if everyone has been fully vaccinated.

The state needs to reach "herd immunity," or vaccination of at least 70% of the population, before many recommended precautions can be eased, officials say. It's unclear how well COVID-19 vaccine prevents a vaccinated person from transmitting the virus to other people, they say.

Officials note that highly contagious variants of COVID-19 could threaten to reverse progress in reducing transmission of the disease if people ease up on those precautions.

The seven-day, statewide test-positivity rate is 2.7%, officials said.

A total of 3.18 million doses of vaccine have either been delivered to Illinois or set aside for Illinoisans, according to IDPH. Of those doses, 2.7 million have been administered.

Because the currently available vaccines require two doses for full effectiveness, 835,600 Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated, representing 6.5% of the population, according to IDPH.

The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine recently received federal approval. Information wasn't available Monday on when that vaccine might begin to arrive in Illinois.

In Sangamon County, public health officials said 58 more people had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 16,152 since the beginning of the pandemic. The new cases were reported between Saturday and Monday.

No new deaths were reported, with total fatalities of Sangamon County residents standing at 218. Four people with COVID-19 were in the hospital, officials said.

In Menard County, four new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths were reported among county residents. There have been a total of 1,038 COVID-19 cases and six deaths, with two COVID-19-positive patients from the county in the hospital.

Contact Dean Olsen: dolsen@gannett.com; (217) 836-1068; twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.

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