Wilmette Vaccination Rate Is Highest On North Shore, ZIP Code Level Data Shows

WILMETTE, IL — New data from state public health officials shows Wilmette and Kenilworth residents are significantly more vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus than state and county averages.

There are 19,607 fully vaccinated people in Wilmette's 60091 ZIP code — nearly 72 percent of residents — as of Tuesday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Almost 76 percent have received at least a first dose of a two-dose coronavirus vaccine.

In Kenilworth, the rate was lower, with less than 66 percent of people fully vaccinated and 72 percent having received a first dose in the 60043 ZIP code.

The rate of inoculation in both villages is higher than the suburban Cook County average of 58 percent or Chicago's 54 percent vaccination rate.

Wilmette's vaccination rate is also higher than neighboring postal codes covering Evanston, Glenview, Winnetka, Northfield and west Skokie, but it trails the 60076 ZIP code on the east side of Skokie, where more than 73 percent are fully vaccinated and 79 percent have gotten a first jab.

As of Tuesday, the vaccination rate in Wilmette is the highest of any lakefront North Shore communities, according to the IDPH data. But in addition to Skokie, the village's rate also lags behind Northbrook and Lincolnshire, two ZIP codes with nearly 75 percent of residents fully vaccinated.

More than 200 of the state's nearly 1,400 postal codes, mostly in rural areas, had less than 30 percent of their populations vaccinated, according to IDPH. Meanwhile, 10 sparsely populated ZIP codes have 100 percent of their populations vaccinated.

Three with populations of 10,000 or more — two in Chicago's near North Side and one in Naperville — have more than 75 percent of their residents vaccinated, according to state data.

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Federal public health officials have announced plans to offer booster shots to all adults who have received a vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna starting Sept. 20.

Health regulators have already approved boosters for certain immunocompromised people in an effort to offset the potential that the immunity the vaccine provides against coronavirus infections could wane after six to eight months.

Related: 3rd COVID-19 Shot Available To Some Illinoisans: Where To Get It

But even as the government plans to begin to offer third jabs, there are still millions of adults who have not received a first dose.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7.57 million adult Illinois residents, or nearly 77 percent of the population aged 18 or over, have received at least one dose. More than 60 percent of adults are fully vaccinated.

That means about 5.25 million Illinois residents have not yet received a dose of vaccine.

The daily average number of doses administered in the state stood at about 40,000 Wednesday. The seven-day rolling average reached a peak of more than 130,000 in mid-April before falling below 15,000 a day in the second week of July.

While there is no data available about the number of vaccinated people who test positive for the coronavirus in Illinois, also known as breakthrough infections, there were 1,056 fully vaccinated people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to state health data.

Nearly 97 percent of the more than 7,000 people who have died from COVID-19 complications in Illinois since January have been unvaccinated, according to the state data, with just 223 deaths among those who have been fully vaccinated.

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, 21 Wilmette residents have died of COVID-related causes since the start of the pandemic, the most recent of which was May 17. No such deaths in Kenilworth have been reported.