CHICAGO — Illinois public health officials on Wednesday reported 145 deaths related to the coronavirus, the most in a single day since late May and the first time the daily death toll has reached triple digits since early June.
The state also reported 12,657 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, topping the record of 12,623 set a day earlier. There have now been 523,840 cases and 10,434 coronavirus-related in Illinois since the pandemic began.
The figures announced Wednesday include the death of a seventh resident at the Illinois Veterans' Home in LaSalle since the pandemic began. Officials reported three deaths at the state-run long-term care facility on Tuesday. There are currently 72 residents and 72 employees with COVID-19 at the home.
"Our veterans homes really have done an outstanding job of keep our veterans safe," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said early Wednesday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a long-delayed state veterans home in the Dunning neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side. "But you can't a hundred percent keep everybody safe in this environment, especially when our communities, our mayors, our city councils, our county chairs aren't living up to the mitigations, are not enforcing the mitigations in many parts of the state."
As COVID-19 has surged this fall, Pritzker has repeatedly criticized local officials for not enforcing prohibitions on indoor dining and bar service and other measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus that causes the disease.
As of Wednesday, the state is averaging 72 deaths a day from COVID-19 over the past week. A week earlier, the seven-day average was 45 daily deaths. At the beginning of October, the average was 23 deaths a day.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 also have reached an all-time high, with 5,042 patients reportedly in the hospital as of Tuesday night. The previous high was 5,037 patients on April 28.
The percentage of coronavirus tests returning positive results statewide — known as the test positivity rate — hit a seven-day average of 13.6% as of Tuesday, up from 8.2% when the state began reporting the figure Oct. 29.
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