After seeing metrics decrease for the past several months, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have experienced an over 20% increase in coronavirus cases within the past week, according to the latest data.
The Illinois Department of Public Health recorded a 29% increase in cases from last Friday, with numbers jumping from 17,462 to 22,600 cases in one week.
As of earlier this week, the state was averaging 2,651 new cases of coronavirus each day over the last seven days. That is an increase of 19.7% over where the state was on Nov. 2, when 2,215 new cases per day were being averaged.
If one goes back to Oct. 24, when the state hit a low watermark in new cases, the number of new cases of the virus has increased by 27.7%, from 2,076 new cases per day.
In all, 1,735,586 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began, according to IDPH. The additional 129 deaths reported this week, which is a decrease from the past week, bring the state to 26,077 confirmed COVID fatalities.
In Chicago, cases went from 333 average daily cases to 414, which is a 24% increase over seven days, according to the health department's data.
The Chicago Department of Public Health is also recording a 30% increase in hospitalizations over the past week, moving from 19 to 25 people on average being treated for COVID in city hospitals daily.
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The city's positivity rate also saw an uptick in seven days, moving from 1.8% last week to 2.2% as of Friday. According to the data, average daily deaths were down, however, and vaccinations and COVID tests were up.
“It’s nothing like what we saw last October and November. That huge surge, where we were up to more than 3,400 new cases every day, we’re at 10% of that at this point,” CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. “We’ll be keeping a close eye, but the biggest risk factor for still being diagnosed with COVID, or (being) hospitalized or dying from COVID here in Chicago and across the country is not being vaccinated.”
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