Illinois’ average coronavirus testing positivity rate reached its highest point in five months Friday as public health officials announced a second straight record-breaking day of 6,943 new infections statewide.
It’s the fourth time in seven days that the daily caseload has topped 6,000 — a number that far exceeds anything seen in the state’s previous COVID-19 peak in May.
The soaring tally came along with a record-high 95,111 tests submitted to the Illinois Department of Public Health, raising the statewide average testing positivity rate over the last week to 7.3%.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s health team uses the average testing positivity rate to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading — and it has more than doubled over the last month.
With yet another record-breaking case count, the state has surpassed 400,000 cases over the course of the pandemic. Since March, 402,401 people have tested positive for the virus, or about 3.2% of Illinois’ population.
Officials also announced 36 more deaths have been attributed to the virus, raising the death toll to 9,711. The latest fatalities included a Cook County man in his 40s and 12 other Chicago-area residents.
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Illinois hospitals continue to see the most coronavirus patients they’ve seen since early June. As of Thursday night, 3,092 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, with 673 in intensive care units and 288 on ventilators.
Coronavirus hospitalizations are up about 73% since the beginning of October, as infections flare to new highs across the Midwest.
“We have a real problem on our hands, and people’s lives hang in the balance,” Pritzker said Thursday. He’s scheduled to deliver another coronavirus briefing Friday afternoon.
Officials also announced 49 of the state’s 102 counties are considered to be at a coronavirus “warning level” for various indicators including rising cases, positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths. But that’s actually down from the 51 counties flagged by the state last week.
Among the latest are DuPage, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties.
But as early as next week, the entire state could be facing Pritzker’s controversial “mitigation” efforts that include bans on indoor dining at bars and restaurants.
Over the protests of restaurateurs who say they’ve followed protocols to avoid outbreaks, Pritzker’s indoor dining ban went into effect Friday in Chicago.
East-Central Illinois was the latest to be hit with such restrictions. Pritzker’s office announced mitigations will go into effect Monday in Region 6, which includes Iroquois, Ford, DeWitt, Piatt, Champaign, Vermilion and Macon counties.
That means 10 of the state’s 11 regions will now operate under the state’s mitigation framework. Tighter restrictions are sparked by a seven-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8% or above for three consecutive days.
The East-Central region has an 8.6% positivity rate, up from 5.2% in mid-September and as low as 1.1% in late June, officials said. COVID-19 hospital admissions in the region have tripled since mid-September, now averaging 18 admissions per day.
Along with the ban on indoor service at bars and restaurants, outdoor service ends at 11 p.m. and meetings, social events and other gatherings will be limited to 25 guests or 25% of room capacity.
More than 7.6 million coronavirus tests have been administered in the state overall.
