The Illinois Public Department of Health Thursday issued a public health warning about the rise in cases, saying that residents “should be paying close attention to conditions in their local communities” and urged vaccinations and booster shots for eligible populations. Jen DeSalvo has more.
Coronavirus cases are continuing to rise in the state of Illinois, but hospitalizations and ICU admissions have remained mostly steady in recent weeks, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
As of Monday, the state of Illinois is now averaging 2,191 new cases of coronavirus per day. That represents an increase of 25% in the last week, with the average number of new daily cases rising from 1,753 on April 11.
The week prior to that, the state saw an increase of nearly 38% in the number of new cases, indicating that the rate of increase could be slowing down statewide.
In the last month, Illinois COVID cases have more than doubled, rising by more than 103% in that time, officials say.
Other metrics have remained mostly steady even as case numbers have gone up. The state did not report any additional COVID fatalities on Sunday or Monday, and the average number of daily deaths related to COVID still remains at six, according to officials.
Hospitalizations have remained mostly steady in recent weeks, with 511 hospital patients having tested positive for the virus as of Monday. That is up less than 5% from the start of the month, and officials say that 2% of the state’s hospital beds that are currently occupied by COVID patients.
Of those, 71 are currently in intensive care unit beds.
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Despite the increases in cases, only one county is currently at an elevated transmission risk level. That is occurring in Champaign County, which is currently under a “medium-risk” designation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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