While several health care regions in Illinois are seeing improving positivity rates and ICU bed availability numbers, just about every region is still seeing increases in hospitalizations related to coronavirus.
According to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, only two regions in the state have seen hospitalization numbers remain steady, or decrease, on at least seven of the preceding 10 days, one of the benchmarks regions previously had to hit in order to reduce COVID mitigations.
Region 3, located in the western portion of the state and including Springfield and Quincy, is one of those, having seen improvements in hospitalizations on eight of the last 10 days. The other is in southwest Illinois, located near St. Louis, where positivity rates remain somewhat elevated at 6.5%, but hospitalizations have either decreased or remained steady on seven of the last 10 days.
In northern parts of the state, positivity rates continue to remain low, including in the city of Chicago, where the positivity rate remains the state in Illinois at 3.8%. In Cook County, that number is 4.1%, while in McHenry and Lake counties, the number is at 4.4%.
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Hospitalizations remain a concern in many regions, including in Region 5, where ICU bed availability remains perilously low at 6%. The region’s positivity rate has steadily remained above 10% for several weeks, and remains there now, at 10.1%.
Here are the numbers from all 11 of the state’s health care regions.
Region 1 (Northwest Illinois):
Local
Positivity Rate: 5.5% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 19% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 9/10 days increasing
Region 2 (West-Central Illinois):
Positivity Rate: 5.1% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 18% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 9/10 days increasing
Region 3 (West Illinois):
Positivity Rate: 5.7% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 18% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 8/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 4 (Southwest Illinois):
Positivity Rate: 6.5% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 22% (increasing)
Hospitalization Trends: 7/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 5 (South Illinois):
Positivity Rate: 10.1% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 6% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 6/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 6 (East-Central Illinois):
Positivity Rate: 7.5% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 20% (decreasing)
Hospitalization Trends: 5/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 7 (Will, Kankakee counties):
Positivity Rate: 5.6% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 24% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 9/10 days increasing
Region 8 (Kane, DuPage counties):
Positivity Rate: 4.5% (decreasing)
ICU Bed Availability: 26% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 7/10 days decreasing or stable
Region 9 (McHenry, Lake counties):
Positivity Rate: 4.4% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 22% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 5/10 days increasing
Region 10 (Suburban Cook County):
Positivity Rate: 4.1% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 18% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 9/10 days increasing
Region 11 (Chicago):
Positivity Rate: 3.8% (stable)
ICU Bed Availability: 19% (stable)
Hospitalization Trends: 7/10 days increasing
