2,441 new virus cases, 25 more deaths in Illinois
State health officials Saturday announced 2,441 new coronavirus cases and 25 additional deaths.
The new infections were found among the latest batch of 65,217 tests reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health in the last day. That keeps the state’s seven-day positivity rate — a figure experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading — at 3.6%, which is a slight uptick from last weekend, when that number checked in at 3.5%.
Saturday marked the 10th day this month Illinois recorded a 2,000-plus daily caseload. This month, Illinois is averaging 1,973 cases per day. The state averaged a daily caseload of 1,812 new infections last month — a large increase from the 1,150 new cases reported on average each day in July.
While the state’s daily caseload average has risen in the last three months, positivity rates have sunk across most of Illinois, thanks to a statewide increase in testing capacity. Illinois has processed more than 1.3 million tests this month.
More than 5.4 million tests have been administered in Illinois since March, with 286,326 coming back positive.
Chicago is at 4.6% positivity, which is a 0.4% decrease from last weekend. Meanwhile, its surrounding regions check in at 5.5% or below.
Of the 25 coronavirus-related deaths announced Saturday, nine were recorded in Cook County.
In total, 8,588 Illinoisans have succumbed to the respiratory virus since March — about 3% of all Illinois coronavirus cases.
As of Saturday, 1,597 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Illinois, with 355 of them in intensive care units and 141 on ventilators, which is still well below the state’s capacity, officials said.