CHICAGO (AP) – The Illinois Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 145 confirmed new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total number of fatalities in the state to 10,434 since the pandemic’s start.
The deaths are the most in a single day since late May and the first time the daily death toll has reached triple digits since early June. Wednesday’s fatalities include the seventh death resident at the Illinois Veterans’ Home in LaSalle since the pandemic began.
The 12,657 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus were found among 93,464 tests administered in the state, resulting in a seven-day positivity rate of 12.4%.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 also reached an all-time high, with 5,042 patients as of late Tuesday. The previous high was 5,037 patients on April 28.
“I want to remind everybody how deadly this virus is,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “It hasn’t abated. It hasn’t changed. It’s out there.”
Pritzker said he is looking at statewide mitigations similar to his springtime stay-at-home order, but placed the onus on local governments to enforce masking, social distancing and crowd limit guidelines.
“Local governments though, right now, if they are not imposing new mitigations and enforcing the ones that are already in place, they’re doing it wrong,” Pritzker said.
Health department officials note the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health experts emphasize gatherings and travel in and out of communities present a high risk of spreading the infection. With a rising number of COVID=19 cases in the state, even small gatherings that mix households, or traveling to areas that are experiencing high rates of positivity, is not advised and is potentially dangerous, officials said.
