Illinois coronavirus death toll eclipses 5,000, but infection rates continue to decline

Governor JB Pritzker announced Wednesday 160 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, which brings the statewide total to 5,083 deaths in Illinois.

The state saw 1,111 positive cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 114,306 positive cases.

There were 17,179 tests performed in the last 24 hours, and the state reported a 6.4% single day positivity rate. The state’s rolling seven-day positive average is down to 8.6%.

There have been a total of 803,973 tests performed in the state to date.

There are 3,826 people with COVID-19 in the hospital, and of those 1,031 are in the ICU and 592 on a ventilator.

Illinois has a 92% recovery rate as of Wednesday.

“The vast majority of those who tested positive have already recovered or experienced mild enough cases that they’re recovering at home,” Pritzker said.

The Northeast region (Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, McHenry, Lake and Will counties) is on track for Phase 3 with 14.5% positivity rate, a 3.8% decrease in the last 14 days. The region reported a 54.2% decrease in hospital admissions since May 1. The region also reported 26% medical/surgical bed availability, 28.9% ICU bed availability, and 65.6% ventilator availability.

The The North Central region (Bureau, DeKalb, La Salle, Lee, Ogle, Whiteside, Carroll, Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson, Putnam and Jo Daviess counties) is also on track for Phase 3 with a 7.2% positivity rate. The region reported a 29.7% decrease in hospital admissions since May 1. The region has 38.4% medical/surgical bed availability, 41.3% ICU bed availability, and 58.9% ventilator availability.

In order to move into Phase 3 of the Restore Illinois plan this Friday, each of the state’s health regions must ensure that testing is available for hospital patients, healthcare workers, first responders and people with underlying health conditions.

Testing must also be made available to the residents and staff of congregate living facilities, according to the plan. A system for COVID-19 contact tracing and monitoring must be in place and able to respond 24 hours after diagnosis.

In addition to these requirements, each region must report an average positivity rate of 20% or lower, increasing no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period.

Regions must also report no overall increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19 for a period of 28 days, meaning hospitalizations must decrease or remain stable.

Finally, each region must prove available surge capacity of at least 14% of ICU beds, medical/surgical beds and ventilators.

Source: The Daily Chronicle