Illinois’ coronavirus climb took another dangerous step up Wednesday as health officials announced an additional 2,295 Illinoisans have contracted COVID-19, the latest nearly three-month high for the state.
The newest cases were confirmed among a record-high 50,299 tests reported to the state, but they were still enough to raise Illinois’ testing positivity rate over the last week to 4.4%, the number experts look to to gauge how quickly the virus is spreading. It had been down to 2.5% last month.
Daily caseloads have surpassed 2,000 on four occasions so far in August, each marking a new high for the state since May 24. The state tallied 2,508 new cases that day, toward the end of the state’s initial pandemic peak.
Cases bottomed out in mid-June as the state reported an average of about 643 new cases per day between June 8-21.
The state’s daily case rate is now almost triple that figure over the last two weeks, as Illinois has reported an average of 1,816 new cases per day from Aug. 6 through Wednesday.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s health team has sounded warning calls on Illinois’ steady case over the last month. The Democratic governor was scheduled a COVID-19 briefing for 2 p.m. Wednesday.
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The Illinois Department of Public Health also announced Wednesday that the virus has killed 25 more residents, raising the state’s pandemic death toll to 7,806 over a five-month period.
The virus preys on older people with underlying health conditions, but among its latest victims, it claimed the lives of a Cook County man in his 20s and a downstate St. Clair County man in his 30s.
St. Clair is in the Metro East region now facing stricter business regulations imposed by state health officials due to a testing positivity rate that has jumped to 9.5%. Pritzker has said full-blown business shutdowns could be in order for the region if that number isn’t harnessed below 8% within the next two weeks.
Some far southwest suburbs are also flirting with the 8% positivity rate that would trigger a state intervention, as the Kankakee-Will County region is now up to 7.2%. The state health department put Will on notice last week as one of 14 “warning level counties” due to outbreaks from large gatherings and other risky behavior.
The southern Illinois region has also floated near that line in recent weeks, though it dropped a notch Wednesday to 7.1%.
Chicago has held steady at 5.1%, compared to 6.4% in suburban Cook County.
Of the nearly 3.5 million people in Illinois who have been tested for the coronavirus, 211,889 have received positive results. That’s about 1.7% of the state’s 12.7 million population.
As of Tuesday night, 1,519 Illinois coronavirus patients were hospitalized, with 334 in intensive care units and 144 on ventilators.
