Updated 4/20/2021 2:55 PM

Illinois is expecting about 15% fewer COVID-19 vaccine doses this week than what providers statewide received last week.

While providers around the state are set to received 466,870 doses, that’s almost 85,000 fewer doses than the state received last week from the federal government.

No explanation was given by Illinois Department of Public Health officials for the reduction, though some of it is likely due to the federal regulators halting use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week when it was discovered six women who had received that vaccine developed rare intracranial blood clots.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has slated a Friday hearing to determine the fate of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s future use. Many experts believe it will return to circulation with some level of additional warning or limitations on who can receive it.

So far, 10,162,155 doses have been delivered to Illinois since the vaccine rollout began in mid-December.

Of the new vaccine doses arriving in Illinois this week, 225,960 are earmarked for use in suburban Cook County as well as the DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will, according to IDPH figures.

The suburbs will receive enough vaccine to administer 145,360 first doses this week and 80,600 second doses.

“If you want us open and Chicago fully back to the way we were, getting everybody vaccinated is the way to do that,” said Chicago Public Health Director Dr. Alison Arwady. “Assuming we don’t see a new emergence of variants, we are going to get to a point later this year.”

Statewide, new cases of COVID-19 continue to decline as does the state’s seven-day average case positivity rate, which now stands at 3.8%. Case positivity shows the percentage of new cases derived from all test results returned. A seven-day window is used to smooth any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.

The state is averaging 3,056 new cases of the virus a day over the past week, according to IDPH figures. That figure has been declining for a full week when it peaked at 3,390 new cases a day April 13.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations continue to increase, which is not unexpected as they are a lagging indicator of infection levels in a pandemic, experts note. It could take two weeks or longer once cases begin to decline to see the effect on hospitalizations. Currently, hospitals throughout the state are treating 2,288 COVID-19 patients, with 522 of them in intensive care beds, according to IDPH records.

IDPH figures Tuesday showed nine more residents have died and another 2,587 new cases were diagnosed.

That brings the state’s death toll from COVID-19 to 21,694, with 1,306,787 residents who have been infected since the outset of the pandemic.

A total of 8,201,830 vaccines have been administered in Illinois, state officials said. That includes 81,963 more on Monday.

IDPH officials noted the number of vaccines administered at Walgreens stores Monday were not included because of a “technical issue.” Those figures will be updated Wednesday, officials said.

State officials also reported 3,416,113 people are now fully vaccinated in Illinois.