CHICAGO — The city and state saw grim milestones Friday: Chicago has now had more than 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, while the state broke yet another high for the most cases reported in one day.
Coronavirus has killed 36 more Illinoisans, the state announced Friday. Among the victims were six people from Cook County, including a man in his 40s. At least 9,711 people in Illinois have been killed by COVID-19.
The state also reported a record-high of 6,943 new confirmed cases, bringing the total up to 402,401 for Illinois. The previous record was set only the day before.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate rose to 7.3 percent — up from 6.9 percent the day before — with a record 95,111 tests reported. The figure represents total confirmed cases divided by total tests.
Illinois is also now reporting its seven-day test positivity, which measures how many tests were positive out of total tests. As of Friday, it’s at 8.5 percent, up from 8.2 percent Thursday.
As of Thursday night, 3,092 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Illinois, including 673 people in the ICU and 288 people using ventilators.
In Chicago, 1,507 new confirmed cases and two deaths from COVID-19 were reported. At least 3,068 Chicagoans have died from the virus and there have been 100,952 confirmed cases.
An average of 841 cases are being reported and three people are dying per day in Chicago.
The city’s seven-day test positivity is at 8.1 percent.
Cases are rising and hospitalizations are rising in Chicago — and deaths will soon begin to rise, as well, the city’s health chief, Dr. Allison Arwady has said.
Officials have said most of Chicago’s spread is happening in small gatherings of family and friends, often at home. But there’s also been spread at restaurants and bars statewide, and the ban on indoor dining and drinking at restaurants and bars started Friday morning for Chicago.
Officials have said it’s possible this new, second wave of coronavirus will be even worse than what Chicago experienced in the spring.
Arwady urged Chicagoans to stop seeing people and inviting them home to slow the virus’s spread and prevent more cases and deaths.
“We need to turn this around and then, just like we were able to a month ago, we’ll be able to move” back toward reopening, Arwady said at a Friday morning news conference.
Block Club Chicago’s coronavirus coverage is free for all readers. Block Club is an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom.
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Already subscribe? Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
Comments are closed.