COVID-19 in Illinois: 7,598 New Cases, 76 Additional Deaths

(WTTW News)(WTTW News)

Illinois health officials reported nearly 7,600 new and probable cases of COVID-19 across the state on Sunday and 76 additional deaths, among them 20 residents of Cook County, including three women and two men in their 50s.

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Sunday marked the first day this month which Illinois’ daily death toll dipped below 125. There were only 10 days in November when triple-digit numbers were recorded in the number of virus-related deaths. It’s a disturbing trend across the U.S., which saw more than 3,100 deaths in a single day this week, obliterating the record set last spring.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine could be distributed to health care workers in Illinois and Chicago between Dec. 20 and Dec. 26 if federal officials grant an emergency use authorization, as expected, to pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Illinois expects to get 109,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, including 23,000 doses reserved for Chicago, in the first shipment, Pritzker said. However, that depends on federal officials voting to authorize its distribution on Thursday.

State health officials this week also called on residents who have had COVID-19 to consider donating plasma as their antibodies may help those who are actively fighting the disease.


Full coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic from WTTW News.


Since January, the pandemic has infected 787,573 people in Illinois and has been linked to 13,255 deaths across the state, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which reports that 79,538 tests were processed since Saturday.

The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests is 10.1%, according to IDPH — the same as it was a week ago. Test positivity across the state — the number of positive tests as a percentage of total tests — is 11.8%. That rate is higher both in suburban Cook County (12.7%) and Chicago (12.6%), IDPH regional data shows.

As of Saturday night, 5,160 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19, according to IDPH — a decrease of almost 700 from the previous week. Of those, 1,103 patients were in intensive care units and 643 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators, IDPH reports.

Under Tier 3 of Illinois’ plan to reduce a surge in coronavirus infections, indoor gatherings in people’s homes have been limited to members of the same household.

Pritzker said Monday that tier 3 mitigations will not be lifted in any region of the state “for the next few weeks, even if they might be on track to meet those metrics.”

Illinois began operating under tightened mitigations on Nov. 20 to curb the spread of the virus.

Note: This story was originally published Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020. It has been updated with data released Sunday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.


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