Illinois health officials on Friday reported 2,818 new coronavirus cases and 35 additional deaths over the last 24 hours.
According to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Friday's figures bring the state’s total to 313,518 cases and 8,945 deaths since the pandemic began.
The death toll is lower than Wednesday's 42 fatalities, which marked the deadliest day in the state since June 24.
Illinois health officials said 71,599 new tests were returned to state laboratories over the last 24 hours. Those tests increase the state’s rolling seven-day positivity rate to 3.8%, up from 3.7% a day earlier.
Hospitalizations in the state also ticked up slightly Friday, with 1,812 patients currently hospitalized statewide. Of those patients, 395 were in intensive care units, and 153 were on ventilators.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday that while many of the state's healthcare regions were seeing "promising declines," "that progress has cooled."
"We are seeing changes in positivity averages around the state level off, with three regions that were decreasing last week now sitting at a stable level," he said during an update Wednesday, which was delivered virtually as the governor continues to isolate following a staffer's positive test last week.
Local
Still, on Friday state health officials loosened the stricter mitigations that had been in place for weeks in Region 4, allowing the area to return to phase four guidelines Friday afternoon as positivity rates declined there.
