Illinois has set another single-day record for coronavirus infections Tuesday with 12,623 new and probable cases reported. That pushes the total number of people who have tested positive for the virus in the state since the pandemic began past 500,000. There were also 79 additional deaths, including one death apiece in Clinton, Wayne, and Effingham Counties.
Governor JB Pritzker says COVID-19 hospitalizations also are rapidly increasing across the state. For nearly a week now, he says more than four thousand Illinois COVID patients have been in the hospital each day.
“Across the state, the majority of our regions are seeing far higher rates of hospitalizations for COVID-19 than they ever did last spring. Outside of Cook and the collar counties, much of Illinois’ communities are experiencing the worst surge that they have seen yet,” said Pritzker.
The Governor says Northwestern and Southern Illinois have recently seen hospitalizations rates about double since their peak back in May. Central Illinois and the Metro East Areas are dealing with increases of two to three and a half times their previous highs.
Statewide, Prizker says the daily COVID cases are up nearly 380-percent since the beginning of October and the overall test positivity rate is up by more than 180 percent.
The statewide positivity rate for the past seven days has increased to 12-percent. The positivity rate for the Southern Illinois Region for the week ending November 7th is up to 11.8-percent. The Marion County rate is at an even ten-percent. The Metro East Region positivity has increased to 12.7-percent. The East Central Illinois Region rate increased to 11.9-percent.
