- Credibility:
CHICAGO — Nineteen more people died of COVID-19 infections in Illinois, and another 672 people tested positive for the disease, Illinois Department of Public Health officials announced Sunday.
At 19, that is the lowest number of deaths recorded in a 24-hour period since April 2, when the state tracked 16 people who died.
In all, 6,308 have died of coronavirus and 132,543 have tested positive throughout the state.
City officials have said Chicago is on track to progress to Phase 4 of the reopening plan in July. But Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, is urging residents to remain cautious as more businesses reopen and people expand social circles.
Even though Illinois thus far is faring better than other states which are seeing spikes in the illness, Arwady said last week that Chicago needs to record fewer than 20 new cases per day to be considered low risk.
So far, 49,449 have tested positive in Chicago as of Sunday, an increase of 164 over the past 24 hours. Another 12 people died in Chicago.
“If people can hang in there and keep doing the things we know work, the things that have given us the progress we saw in the month of May, we will be OK to continue that cautious reopening carefully,” Arwady said Friday press conference. “But if people think COVID is over, we will have trouble here, no doubt about it.”
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