Illinois' positivity rate drops as IDPH announces another 37 COVID-19 deaths

The seven-day positivity rate for COVID-19 dropped to 2.5% as the Illinois Department of Public Health announced an additional 37 deaths from the novel coronavirus Tuesday.

That is the highest number of deaths announced since June 26, while the state has another 587 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The department announced that 2.1% of 26,994 total tests in the previous 24 hours came back positive. Illinois has now seen 148,452 total cases of the virus and 7,063 people have died. A total of 1,809,834 tests have been run.

As of late Monday night, Illinois had 1,385 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 320 were in the ICU and 153 were on ventilators. The state had more than 15,000 open hospital beds.

Regional update: The Northeast region (Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, McHenry, Lake and Will counties) reported a positivity rate average of 4%. The region reported an average of 35% of medical/surgical beds available, 44% of ICU beds available and 74% of ventilators available.

The North Central region (Bureau, DeKalb, La Salle, Lee, Ogle, Whiteside, Carroll, Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson, Putnam and Jo Daviess counties) reported a positivity rate rolling average of 3%. On average, the region has enough medical/surgical beds to accommodate a 48% surge in COVID-19 cases. The region reported that 57% of ICU beds are available and 79% of ventilators are available.

The Central region reported an average positivity rate of 2%. On average, there was an availability of 41% of medical/surgical beds, 50% of ICU beds and 78% of ventilators.

The Southern region had an average positivity rate of 4%. On average, there was an availability of 45% of medical/surgical beds, 47% of ICU beds and 78% of ventilators.

Newly reported deaths include:

– Cook County: 2 females 50s, 2 females 60s, 4 males 60s, 4 males 70s, 3 females 80s, 2 males 80s, 1 unknown 80s, 2 males 90s, 1 unknown 90s

– DuPage County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s

– Kane County: 1 female 70s

– Kendall County: 1 female 90s

– Lake County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s

– Madison County: 1 female 70s

– McHenry County: 1 male 60s

– Peoria County: 1 female 70s

– Rock Island County: 1 female 90s

– Sangamon County: 1 female 90s

– St. Clair County: 1 female 50s

– Stephenson County: 1 male 80s

– Will County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s

– Winnebago County: 1 male 90s

Source: The Daily Chronicle