For the second straight day, Illinois on Friday shattered its record for additional coronavirus infections with 4,554 newly diagnosed cases of the deadly disease.
The gargantuan caseload was reported among a record-high 87,759 tests submitted to the Illinois Department of Public Health — but it was still enough to raise the state’s seven-day average testing positivity rate over the 5% mark for the first time since early June, when the state was easing down from its initial peak of the COVID-19 crisis.
The positivity rate, which indicates how rapidly the virus is spreading, has jumped up to 5.1% from 4.9% a day earlier when the state announced the previous high of 4,015 daily cases — and it’s almost two full percentage points higher than it was less than two weeks ago.
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Those red flags come as Illinois’ neighboring states of Indiana and Wisconsin have suffered brutal, record-breaking COVID-19 flareups of their own.
“This number makes it look like we’re headed for a new peak,” University of Chicago epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon said of the previous record case tally on Thursday. “And this mountain looks even taller than the last one.”
Public health officials also attributed 38 more deaths to the virus statewide, including a Cook County woman in her 40s and 13 other Chicago-area residents.
On top of that, the number of Illinois hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients has continued its gradual rise. As of Thursday night, 2,016 Illinoisans were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 410 receiving intensive care and 151 on ventilators.
Before Thursday, Illinois hadn’t topped 4,000 coronavirus cases in a day since mid-May, during the worst days of the pandemic. The state’s testing capacity has expanded dramatically since then, which is one factor behind the recent sky-high case numbers.
The current average testing positivity rate still isn’t approaching the dangerous highs near 20% that the state saw in May. But more troubling, experts say, is the quick uptick in positivity.
“We know that after months of disruption, many are yearning for a return to normalcy, but the recent uptick in positivity around the state is a reminder that each of us plays an integral role in preventing the spread of this deadly virus,” a spokeswoman for Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday.
Since March, at least 336,174 people have contracted the virus in Illinois among more than 6.6 million tests administered. Of those, 9,165 people have died.
