After several days of daily testing numbers ranging between 40,000 and 50,000, Illinois suddenly saw a sharp drop this week.
With Tuesday's report dropping below 30,000 and Wednesday rising only slightly higher, state health officials cited a "slowdown in data processing within [Illinois Department of Public Health] systems."
According to IDPH, the slowdown affected the number of tests reported "due to the large volume of testing occurring in Illinois."
"All available resources are being deployed to improve our data systems throughput and we anticipate improvement in data processing as the week proceeds," a release from the department stated. "Although the slowdown has delayed the reporting of some additional aggregate numbers, this has not affected the reporting of positive or negative results to individuals in any way."
Labs in Illinois on Wednesday reported 32,751 tests performed in the past 24 hours, with 2,128 positive cases, lifting the state's positivity rate once again this week.
Statewide totals since the pandemic began rose to 238,643 confirmed cases, with at least 8,091 deaths in all 102 counties attributed to the virus.
With Wednesday's increase in cases, the state’s rolling 7-day positivity rate increased to 4.5% from 4.3% the day before.
News
Hospitalizations ticked up slightly on Tuesday, health officials said. In all, 1,596 patients are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19 in the state of Illinois, with 347 of those patients in intensive care units. The number of patients on ventilators dropped, however, from 146 to 142.
