coronavirus illinois

Illinois Reports 6,110 New Coronavirus Cases and 51 Deaths as Positivity Rate Continues to Climb

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Illinois health officials reported 6,110 new cases of coronavirus and 51 additional deaths on Wednesday as the statewide positivity rate continued its climb to its highest level in months.

Wednesday's new cases mark the seventh time in the last eight days that the state has reported 4,000 or more new cases of the virus. The new numbers bring the statewide total to 389,095 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.

The 51 new fatalities bring the state’s death toll to 9,619, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

A total of 70,752 new tests were performed over the last 24 hours, with 7,459,042 performed during the pandemic.

The state’s seven-day positivity rate, on a steady rise for nearly all of October, increased from 6.4% to 6.7% Wednesday, marking the highest it has been since at least early June.

Hospitalizations increased again as well, health officials said, with 2,861 patients currently hospitalized due to COVID-19. Of those patients, 600 are in intensive care units, while 243 are currently on ventilators.

Wednesday's metrics were announced the same day enhanced mitigations took effect in two of Illinois' 11 regions: suburban Cook County in Region 10 and the Metro East in Region 4.

Illinois officials on Wednesday also announced that Region 9, which is suburban Lake and McHenry counties, will see more restrictions as well, as will Chicago.

Those mitigations in all four regions and four others, including Chicago, include the shutdown of indoor dining and bar service as well as the limiting of group sizes to 25 people, among other changes.

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