CHICAGO (WLS) — Illinois public health officials reported 16,581 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday and 66 related deaths.

It is the second-highest number of cases reported in a single day since the pandemic began, behind only the 17,608 cases reported on November 5, 2020.

There have been 2,002,360 total COVID cases, including 27,357 deaths in the state since the pandemic began.

The seven-day statewide test positivity rate is 7.9%.

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Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported testing 199,406 new specimens for a total of 42,986,170 since the pandemic began.

As of Tuesday night, 4,178 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 867 patients were in the ICU and 451 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

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A total of 18,775,064 vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois as of Tuesday, and 60.09% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 66,113.