- Credibility:
CHICAGO — Friday saw 190 more people die from coronavirus in Illinois, making this the deadliest week yet of the pandemic for the state.
In all, at least 1,079 Illinoisans were reported dead by COVID-19 this week. Friday also marked Illinois recording more than 14,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The staggering toll adds on to recent heavy losses: Last week was the second-deadliest of the pandemic for Illinois, with at least 953 victims.
Among the most recent victims were 71 people in Cook County, including a man in his 20s and two people in their 30s. At least 14,050 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 1,017 deaths are considered to be probably related to coronavirus.
Deaths have stayed high in Chicago, too, with the city breaking records with 120 victims last week, Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said during a Thursday morning livestream.
But the city broke that record again this week, as Chicago saw 191 deaths from coronavirus, according to state data.
“Illinois is now averaging 152 deaths per day from COVID-19. That’s an average of 35 more individuals per day than the worst rate that we reached back in the spring,” Gov. JB Pritzker said during a Monday news conference. “Each of these individuals … survived for months during this pandemic. Some of them might have gotten tired and let their guard down. Others might have been trying their best to do all the right things and somehow, some way still got infected in this horrible pandemic that’s still ravaging our nation and taking more than 1,000 American lives in the last 24 hours.
“But even without knowing each of their pandemic stories, I can tell you this: Most of their deaths were preventable if everyone wore their masks.”
The state also reported 9,420 cases in the past day. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 832,951.
Pritzker and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, have urged people to keep taking safety measures as the nation begins to look ahead to a vaccine. Health care workers and people in long-term care facilities could start getting vaccine in just two weeks in Illinois.
RELATED: A Coronavirus Vaccine Is Coming. Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Getting One In Chicago
Officials expect there could be another spike in cases — and, later, deaths — due to people gathering for Thanksgiving. Chicago is seeing its positivity rate and daily new cases climb, and that’s “clearly related to Thanksgiving,” Arwady said.
It’s too early to tell if that surge is happening statewide in Illinois, Ezike said earlier this week.
“You’ll see the increase in the cases first,” Ezike said. “That will then be followed by the hospitalizations. … We still need more time. It’s too early to say.”
Because of that, every region in Illinois will remain under Tier 3 restrictions for at least several more weeks, Pritzker has said. The rules close museums, casinos and theaters; cut capacity at stores; stop indoor sports and put stricter rules in place at gyms and salons, among other things.
Chicago is also under a stay at home advisory. People are being asked to stay home as much as possible, leaving only for essential things like grocery shopping; to work from home if possible; to stop gathering with anyone outside their household; and to stop traveling.
The surge in new cases in Chicago — and across Illinois — can only partially be explained by increased testing; in reality, there are more cases because coronavirus is spreading so much, officials have said. There’s evidence of that in the way positivity rates and COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations rose rapidly and have stayed high.
Illinois’ seven-day positivity fell slightly to 9.4 percent Friday with 104,448 tests reported. It was at 9.5 percent Thursday. The figure represents total confirmed cases divided by total tests.
Illinois’ seven-day test positivity, which measures how many tests were positive out of total tests, fell to 11.1 percent Friday. It was at 11.4 percent Thursday.
As of Thursday night, 5,141 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Illinois, including 1,081 people in the ICU and 635 people using ventilators.
In Chicago, 52 deaths and 1,836 confirmed cases were reported since Thursday. There have been at least 3,750 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago and 180,995 confirmed cases, according to state data.
The city is seeing an average of 18 deaths per day, up from an average of 16 deaths per day the week prior.
An average of 1,726 confirmed cases are being reported per day, a 29 percent increase from the prior week.
The city’s seven-day positivity rate is at 12.9 percent, up from 12 percent the week before.
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