COVID-19 In Illinois: 10,526 New Coronavirus Cases, 148 Additional Deaths
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Public health officials reported 10,526 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases in Illinois on Friday, as well as 148 additional deaths.
It was the fourth day in a row Illinois has reported at least 100 deaths, tied for the second-longest such stretch since the start of the pandemic.
The Illinois Department of Public Health has reported a total of 770,088 cases of COVID-19 so far, including 12,974 deaths.
While deaths from the virus have continued to trend upward since early October, when a new surge of the pandemic started in Illinois, new cases started trending downward over the past few weeks, although they remain far higher than they were at the start of October.
Illinois is averaging 9,692 new cases per day over the past two weeks, compared to 12,061 per day over the previous two weeks, although the current average is still nearly four times the 2,452 cases per day during the first two weeks of October.
The statewide seven-day average case positivity rate in Illinois is now at 10.3%, a slight drop from Thursday's rate of 10.4%. The state's case positivity rate climbed as high as 13.2% during the second wave of the pandemic, which started in early October. The case positivity rate was at only 3.5% on Oct. 1.
As of Thursday night, 5,453 virus patients were being treated in Illinois hospitals, including 1,153 in intensive care, and 703 on ventilators.
While hospitalizations seem to have started trending downward since peaking at 6,175 on Nov. 20, there are still far more COVID-19 patients in the hospital at the start of December than at the start of October.
Illinois is averaging 5,741 coronavirus hospitalizations per day over the last week, nearly four times the average of about 1,500 per day at the start of October. During the first wave of the pandemic, the state peaked at an average of 4,822 hospitalizations per day in early May.
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