The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 4,342 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 69 additional deaths Wednesday.
This is the fourth time that the state’s daily case count has exceeded 4,000 cases over the past week. Aside from one spike on Sept. 4, the state had not reported a daily case count over 4,000 since May.
While Governor JB Pritzker has said that some of this can be attributed to increased testing capacity, four of the state’s health regions have reached the threshold of an 8% test positivity rate and positivity rates are increasing in nearly every health region across the state.
“Regional trends are still moving in the wrong direction,” Pritzker said at a news conference Wednesday.
The seven-day rolling average of Illinois’ positivity rate is at 5.7%, representing an increase of more than one full percentage point over the past week and a 0.2 point increase since Tuesday’s update.
The state received the results of 66,791 COVID-19 tests in the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday afternoon.
Illinois now has seen 355,217 total cases of the virus, and 9,345 people have died. The state has conducted a total of 6,950,105 tests since the start of the pandemic.
As of late Tuesday, Illinois had 2,338 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, the most since June 10. Of those, 502 were in intensive care units, and 194 were on ventilators.
IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike encouraged Illinois residents to continue to wear a mask or face covering, wash hands, and social distance.
“The more cases, eventually you will get to more deaths,” Ezike said. “So the spike in cases we’ve been seeing over the past six weeks, yes it is turning into additional mortality.”
Pritzker was also asked about bars and restaurants staying open for indoor dining and business, and said the state police are “now alerted to be on patrol in those regions” adding that they have the ability to issue citations, and liquor licenses can be revoked.
“We can take away people’s liquor licenses, which I have been reluctant to do,” Pritzker said.
Regional update: Additional restrictions can be placed on any of the state’s 11 health regions if the region sustains an increase in its average positivity rate for seven days out of a 10-day period.
A region may also become more restrictive if there is a seven-day increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19-related illness or a reduction in hospital medical/surgical beds or ICU capacity below 20%. If a region reports three consecutive days with greater than an 8% average positivity rate, additional infection mitigation will be considered through a tiered system of restriction guidelines offered by the IDPH.
The North Suburban region (McHenry and Lake counties) has seen nine days of positivity increases – meeting one criteria for stricter mitigation measures – and four days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased to 7.7%. Currently, 39% of medical/surgical beds are available and 51% of ICU beds.
Regional data from IDPH remains on a three-day lag, but within this region, McHenry County’s seven-day positivity rate average has now climbed to 12.5%. Lake County, which does about two-thirds of the testing in the region, is reporting a rolling average of 6.2%.
The West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) has seen 10 days of positivity increases and five days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased to 9.2%, well above the state’s threshold of 8%. It marked the 14th consecutive day the positivity rate has gone up in this region. Currently, 33% of medical/surgical beds are available and 48% of ICU beds.
The South Suburban region (Will and Kankakee counties) has seen 10 days of positivity increases and five days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased to 8.7%. Currently, 27% of the region’s medical/surgical beds are available and 25% of ICU beds.
Both the West and South Suburban regions will be subject to stricter COVID-19 mitigations from the IDPH beginning this Friday, meaning indoor dining and bar service will be prohibited. The two regions will join regions 1 and 5 in the IDPH’s tier one mitigation measures.
The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen seven days of positivity increases and four days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate decreased slightly to 11.6%, still the highest rate of any of the state’s 11 regions. Currently, 41% of medical/surgical beds are available and 48% of ICU beds.
The North region (Region 1) is under additional COVID-19 mitigation measures from the IDPH as of Saturday, Oct. 3. If Region 1 continues to report positivity rates above 8%, further mitigation efforts may be taken. To return to the standard Phase 4 restrictions, the region will need to maintain an average positivity rate of less than or equal to 6.5% over a 14-day period.
The region’s counties that are reporting the highest positivity rates are Winnebago (12.8%), Boone (15.7%), Carroll (11.6%) and Whiteside (11.6%). DeKalb County’s positivity rate decreased to 8.2%.
The North-Central region (Bureau, Fulton, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Kendall, Knox, La Salle, Livingston, Marshall, McDonough, McLean, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Tazewell, Warren and Woodford counties) has seen eight days of positivity increases – meeting one criteria for stricter mitigation measures – and two days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased to 7.1%. Currently, 42% of medical/surgical beds are available and 41% of ICU beds.
Chicago has seen ten days of positivity increases – meeting one criteria for stricter mitigation measures – and five days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased to 7%, jumping more than one full percentage point in the past seven days. Currently, 25% of medical/surgical beds are available and 33% of ICU beds.
Suburban Cook County has seen nine days of positivity increases – meeting one criteria for stricter mitigation measures – and five days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased to 7.2%. Currently, 26% of medical/surgical beds are available and 32% of ICU beds.
To see how other regions across the state are doing, see the full IDPH dashboard here.
Newly reported deaths include:
• Christian County: 1 female 80s• Clark County: 1 male 90s• Clay County: 1 male 80s• Clinton County: 1 male 80s• Cook County: 2 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 2 males 70s, 3 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s, 2 males 90s• DuPage County: 1 male 30s, 1 female 40s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s• Fayette County: 1 male 80s• Ford County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 90s• Franklin County: 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s• Fulton County: 1 male 90s• Hancock County: 1 male 60s• Jackson County: 1 male 70s• Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 80s• Kendall County: 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s• Knox County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 90s• Lake County: 1 female 70s• Macon County:1 female 90s• Madison County: 1 male 80s• Marion County: 2 males 70s, 1 male 80s• McDonough County: 1 female 80s• Peoria County: 1 female 40s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s• Richland County: 1 male 80s• Saline County: 2 females 80s• Sangamon County: 1 male 80s• Shelby County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 70s• St. Clair County: 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s• Vermilion County: 1 female 70s• Whiteside County: 2 male 80s, 1 female 90s• Will County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 80s• Williamson County: 1 female 90s• Winnebago County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 female 100+• Woodford County: 2 females 90s, 1 male 90s
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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