Vaccine Use In Illinois: How Many Shots Have Been Given?

ILLINOIS — As millions of Americans wait for their turn to receive a coronavirus vaccine and the nation’s leaders vow to ramp up distribution, states have differed in how much of their supply has been used so far.

As of Thursday morning in Illinois, 1.98 million vaccine doses have been distributed, and 1.1 million — or around 55 percent — have been administered, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 860,000 people in Illinois have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 230,850 people have received both doses in the Prairie State, according to the CDC.

That’s 1,822 fully vaccinated people per every 100,000 Illinois residents, or 6,779 people per every 100,000 who have gotten at least one vaccine dose.

On Wednesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Illinois is ahead of President Joe Biden's goal of vaccinating 100 million residents in 100 days.

The country’s vaccination effort topped 50 million administered doses this week, as the Biden administration has said it will begin delivering vaccines directly to the nation’s most well-known pharmacy retailers. Beginning Feb. 11, the White House will deliver 1 million doses of vaccine per week to 6,500 retailers such as CVS and Walgreens, according to reports from Politico and others.

The increased vaccine distribution will be focused on areas that need it the most, said Jeff Zients, the head of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus team. Pharmacy sites have been selected based on their abilities “to reach some of the populations at risk for severe illness from COVID-19,” Zients said.

“This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities,” he added. “This is a critical step to provide the public with convenient, trusted places to get vaccinated in their communities."

The vaccines sent to pharmacies will be in addition to the roughly 10.5 million doses sent to the states every week, according to reports. The 10.5 million is up by about 500,000 from previous weeks, The Associated Press has reported.

As of Wednesday, 55.9 million vaccine doses had been distributed in the country, with 33.8 million people receiving at least one dose. About 27.1 million have taken the first dose, and more than 6.4 million have received both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

Only eight states and the District of Columbia have administered more than 11,000 doses per 100,000 residents as of Tuesday, the CDC said. North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, Connecticut, West Virginia, New Mexico and Oklahoma are the states joining D.C. in reaching that threshold.

Nationally, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been given about 18.2 million times and the Moderna vaccine about 15.5 million times.

The CDC has not yet released county-level data on vaccinations.