CHICAGO — Another 658 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Illinois in the last day.
That means Illinois has now seen 128,415 confirmed cases of the virus, though many of those people have recovered — and officials have said there have likely been many more unconfirmed cases of coronavirus.
The last 24 hours also saw another 23 people dying, bringing the state’s toll up to 5,924 deaths. But that’s far less than just a few weeks ago, when Illinois had some days with more than 100 deaths.
All of those declines — and particularly the state’s positivity rate, which has fallen to about 4 percent — means officials are looking at how to reopen more places and get more people back to work, said Gov. JB Pritzker.
“The more we can get people back to work, the more we can get back to normal, the better off we are,” Pritzker said during a Monday press conference. “As we’ve pushed down the curve and things have gotten better in Illinois, you’ve seen even the positivity number in the state I think today was around 4 percent … . That’s terrific.
“As that number goes down it gives us some confidence level about trying to open up even more.”
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Chicago has seen gains, too: The number of new cases and people being hospitalized with coronavirus has fallen, and the city’s positivity rate has dipped to about 11 percent, said Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health.
The city had 48,147 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,269 deaths from it as of Sunday.
Still, officials have urged people to continue to take measures to prevent spreading the virus, like wearing face coverings, practicing social distancing and washing hands frequently.
The city’s goal is to get to just one new case per 10,000 residents per day — and that’s very far away, Arwady said.
Arwady said officials are still waiting to see what impact, if any, recent protests and gatherings will have on the battle against coronavirus here. The doctor previously said she expects to see a spike in confirmed cases, but it could take several weeks to show up.
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