coronavirus illinois

Illinois Smashes Record With 6,161 New Cases of Coronavirus Saturday

NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Illinois’ recent surge in coronavirus cases took another alarming leap forward Saturday, as the state reported a single-day record 6,161 new cases of the virus along with 63 additional deaths.

The state’s new record smashes the previous mark of 4,942, which was set on Thursday. In all, more than 30,000 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the last seven days, another new record, and a total of 370,194 cases have been reported since the pandemic began.

Saturday’s 63 additional deaths bring the statewide total to 9,481 during the pandemic, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The state did report another high testing day, with 83,517 new tests returned to state labs, but that wasn’t enough to prevent another large surge in the seven-day positivity rate, which now stands at 6.1%. That is the highest that metric has been since June 3, and is drawing ever closer to marking a doubling in the positivity rate since early October, when the state’s seven-day rate was sitting at just 3.3%.

In all, 7,196,855 tests have been performed during the pandemic.

Hospitalizations are also on the rise in Illinois, with 2,616 patients currently hospitalized due to the pandemic. That is the highest number of hospitalizations since early June, according to IDPH figures. Of those patients, 560 are in intensive care units and 222 are on ventilators, both of which are high watermarks in their respective categories since late June.

The spike in cases across Illinois comes as several regions enact new mitigation strategies to curb surging positivity rates. Region 1 is currently in the second-tier of mitigation rules, while Regions 5, 7 and 8 are all currently seeing new rules, including the suspension of indoor dining and bar service.

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