CHICAGO — Illinois public health officials on Tuesday announced 12,542 newly confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, a significant jump after several days of lower numbers.
Officials have voiced cautious optimism over the past week about a flattening of statewide coronavirus numbers after weeks of steady growth, and the higher number of cases reported on Tuesday is likely due, at least in part, to a testing lag over the holiday weekend.
The daily case count was last above 10,000 on Thanksgiving Day and has been below 8,000 since Friday.
The state also reported 125 deaths of people with COVID-19 on Tuesday, raising the statewide death toll to 12,403. The state has reported 738,846 known and probable cases throughout the course of the pandemic.
The cases reported Tuesday came out of a batch of 116,081 tests conducted over a 24-hour period. The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 10.4% for the period ending Monday.
As of Monday night, 5,835 people were in the hospital with COVID-19 across the state, with 1,195 patients in intensive care units and 721 on ventilators. While hospitalizations have come down slightly after reaching above 6,000 last month, the statewide number remains higher than the statewide peak during the initial coronavirus surge in the spring.
.jpg?w=600)
