Statewide positivity rate remains level
The graph shows the rolling, 7-day positivity rate for tests completed starting on June 1. Illinois Department of Public Health data was used to calculate the averages. (Credit: Jerry Nowicki of Capitol News Illinois)
State reports another 30 COVID-19-related deaths
By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois
jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – The seven-day average statewide COVID-19 test positivity rate stayed level at 3.5 percent Tuesday as the Illinois Department of Public Health reported another 1,531 confirmed cases of the virus.
That was among 41,829 test results reported over the previous 24 hours, making for a one-day positivity rate of 3.7 percent. In the Metro East area along the Missouri border near St. Luois, the rate remained level from the previous day at 7.3 percent.
That area, which is Region 4 of the state’s reopening plan, must decrease its positivity rate to 6.5 percent or below for three straight days before added mitigations in the region can be rolled back. Those mitigations include the closure of bars and restaurants to indoor dining and drinking.
Region 1 in northwest Illinois is the only other region with a positivity rate exceeding 7 percent, and it also sits at 7.3 percent. It is not subject to added mitigations, because a region must have a positivity rate above 8 percent for three days to trigger such mitigations.
The other regions range from 2.6 percent in east-central Illinois’ Region 6 to 6 percent in southern Illinois’ Region 5.
IDPH also reported another 30 COVID-19-related deaths in persons whose ages ranged from being in their 30s to being older than 100. That brings the total number of casualties in the state to 8,486 since the pandemic began.
There are now 277,266 confirmed cases among more than 5.1 million test results reported, and the recovery rate is 96 percent for those 42 days removed from a positive diagnosis, according to IDPH.
At the end of Monday, there were 1,455 persons reported hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois, including 367 in intensive care units and 153 on ventilators. All of those numbers were slightly above pandemic lows, where they have plateaued in recent weeks.
That left roughly 39 percent of hospital beds, 44 percent of ICU beds and 79 percent of ventilators unoccupied as of 11:59 p.m. Monday.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Jerry Nowicki
Jerry has more than five years of experience in and around state government and nearly 10 years of experience in news. He grew up in south suburban Evergreen Park and received a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University and a master’s degree online from Purdue University.
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