The state’s rolling seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate held steady near 2 percent on March 8 as officials continue to increase vaccination efforts in all parts of the state.

The positivity rate stood at 2.3 percent, a number that has not moved more than two-tenths of a percentage point for the past 10 days.

Public health officials announced 1,182 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on March 8. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported five additional deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the state’s death toll to 20,767.

Hospitalizations also continued on a steady decline near pandemic lows, with 1,178 people reported hospitalized with COVID-19 at the end of Sunday, including 266 in intensive care unit beds and 118 on ventilators.

As of Monday, the state had administered over 3.3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in total.

March 5 saw a single-day record for vaccines administered with over 134,000 administered statewide, while a total of 98,550 doses were administered Saturday and 29,564 on Sunday. The state has a seven-day rolling average of 90,135 doses administered per day, an increase of 10,000 additional doses from one week ago when that figure stood at 80,416.

As of March 8, just over 9 percent, or 1.1 million, of the state’s 12.7 million residents have been fully vaccinated.

In a news conference late last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker acknowledged that some residents who are currently eligible to receive a vaccine may still find it difficult to schedule an appointment as the federal government continues to increase production and delivery of vaccine doses.

“The increasing supply of vaccine is frankly very exciting, but there is still a shortage across the nation,” Pritzker said on Friday. “That means getting an appointment is still a frustrating experience.”

Pritzker expressed optimism, however, that vaccination numbers will continue to improve as the state expects to receive upward of 100,000 doses per day from the federal government by mid-March.

Local positivity rates inch up

While the total number of new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in the past week in Brookfield, Riverside and North Riverside remained at levels comparable to late last summer, the 60513 and 60546 ZIP codes saw a slight increase in positivity rates.

According to the Northwestern University School of Medicine’s online database tracking positivity rates in the state, the 7-day rolling positivity rate for 60546, which includes both Riverside and North Riverside was 4.06 percent on March 8. That was up from the 14-day rate, which was 2.93 percent as of March 8.

Riverside recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 over the week-long period ending on the morning of March 9, up from five the week prior. However, in North Riverside the number of new cases fell week over week from nine to four.

In the 60513 ZIP code, which is Brookfield, the 7-day rolling positivity rate as of March 8 was 2 percent, up a tad from the 14-day rate of 1.3 percent. There were nine new COVID-19 cases reported for Brookfield during the past week, up slightly from the six reported the week prior.

There were no deaths from COVID-19 reported in any of the villages in the past week.

Bob Uphues contributed to this report.