The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,562 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 18 additional deaths on Sunday.
The state received the results of 37,089 COVID-19 tests in the 24 hours leading up to Sunday afternoon. The seven-day rolling average of Illinois’ positivity rate remained went up to 4.1%.
Illinois now has seen 206,081 total cases of the virus and 7,744 people have died. A total of 3,366,851 tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
As of late Saturday night, Illinois had 1,581 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 345 were in the ICU and 116 were on ventilators.
The Metro East region (Madison, St. Clair, Monroe, Randolph, Clinton, Washington and Bond Counties) became the first Illinois health region to move backwards in the road towards reopening. The region has now seen eight days of positivity increases and has reported an average positivity rate over 8% for three consecutive days.
For Region 4, mitigation measures taking effect Tuesday, include the following:
• Meetings, social events, and other gatherings are now limited to the lesser of 25 individuals or 25 percent of overall room capacity
• All bars, restaurants, gaming facilities, and casinos will close at 11 pm, matching the newly imposed closing times for St. Louis
• All reception halls closed
• Party buses not allowed to operate
• Reservations required for each party at restaurants and bars, and no congregating indoors or outdoors
• Indoor tables reduced to six people or less
• No dancing indoors
• Removal of bar stools at bars to help prevent congregating
• Tables should continue to be six feet apart
Also, the region will need to get under 6.5% positive over a 14-day period in order to return to the current Phase 4 under which the rest of the state is operating. If the positivity rate averages greater than or equal to 8% after 14 days, more stringent mitigations will be applied.
“As we warned when we began reopening Illinois, we are seeing an increase in cases, emergency department visits, and other indicators that the virus is circulating more widely in the community,” IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a news release. “Region 4 is the first of the 11 regions to reach resurgence criteria, but we hope it will be the last. By implementing additional mitigations, such as decreased indoor capacities and limiting hours, we hope to reduce the spread of the virus in the Metro East, and also help prevent an increase in cases, hospitalizations, and death in other regions of the state.”
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I have made it clear that neither arbitrary dates on a calendar nor political pressure will dictate Illinois’ efforts to protect our people. If the data shows we need to go backwards in our reopening, I won’t hesitate to tighten restrictions to protect our collective health,” Governor JB Pritzker said.
Regional update: According to a July 15 update to the governor’s COVID-19 response plan, the state will be tracking public health metrics in a slightly different way to monitor any potential resurgences of COVID-19. 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 ten 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 seven days of positivity increases — meeting one of the criteria for more restrictions — but only two days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased slightly to 5.8%. Currently 39% of medical/surgical beds are available and 56% of ICU beds.
The West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) has seen three days of positivity increases and two days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate remained flat at 4.9%. Currently 33% of medical/surgical beds are available and 46% of ICU beds.
The South Suburban region (Will and Kankakee counties) has seen six days of positivity increases and six days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased slightly to 6.8%. Currently 31% of medical/surgical beds are available and 33% of ICU beds.
The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen two days of positivity increase and zero days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate flattened out at 3.4% after decreasing significantly over the past week. Currently 43% of medical/surgical beds are available and 48% of ICU beds.
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 seven days of positivity increases — meeting one of the criteria for more restrictions — but only two days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased to 5.7%. Currently 41% of medical/surgical beds are available and 45% of ICU beds.
Chicago has seen four days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate increased slightly to 5.0%. Currently 26% of medical/surgical beds are available and 40% of ICU beds.
Suburban Cook County has seen four days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate remained flat at 6.0%. Currently 29% of medical/surgical beds are available and 36% of ICU beds.
To see how other regions across the state are doing, see the full IDPH dashboard here.
Newly reported deaths include:
– Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 2 males 70s, 3 males 80s
– Kankakee County: 1 male 70s
– La Salle County: 1 female 70s
– McHenry County: 1 female 90s
– Morgan County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 100+
– Rock Island County: 1 female 90s
– Will County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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