Health officials in Illinois have confirmed 2,121 new cases of coronavirus over the last 24 hours, with 22 additional deaths attributed to the virus.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the state recorded more than 2,000 new cases of the virus for the second consecutive day, with 259,909 cases confirmed during the pandemic statewide.
Saturday’s 22 additional deaths bring the statewide death toll to 8,295 since the pandemic began.
After the state finished clearing a testing backlog last week, the state has continued to increase its test numbers throughout this week. Saturday saw a very slight drop in tests performed, with 56,594 new tests reported to state labs over the last 24 hours, according to officials.
In all, 4,688,976 tests have been performed during the pandemic.
Fluctuations in the seven-day rolling positivity rate continued once again on Saturday, with that rate dropping to 3.7% after jumping back up to 3.9% on Friday.
As of Saturday, there are 1,509 coronavirus patients hospitalized in the state of Illinois, with 359 of those patients currently in intensive care units. 170 patients remain on ventilators as a result of the virus, officials said.
