New cases of coronavirus are still on the rise in Illinois, but that rate of increase is slowing down, and hospitals are reporting fewer admissions in the last week.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the state is now averaging 3,639 new cases of COVID per day over the last week. That does represent a 16% increase from a week ago, when Illinois was averaging 3,136 new cases per day, but it also represents a slowdown in the rate of increase.
The state is also seeing fewer hospitalizations for COVID than it has in previous days. According to the latest IDPH data, there are currently 699 patients in the state that are hospitalized with COVID, down from the 732 that were hospitalized on Thursday.
The state is reporting that 72 patients are currently in intensive care unit beds, down from the 83 that were in those beds on April 22.
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Officials say 3% of the state’s hospital beds are currently in use by patients who have COVID-19.
On Monday, Illinois officials reported 2,422 new cases of COVID and zero fatalities in the state.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are still five counties in the state that are currently at a “medium community level” of COVID transmission, with Lake and DuPage counties both hitting that threshold in Chicago’s suburbs.
