COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death in Illinois.
At his daily news conference, Governor JB Pritzker says 11,014 people in Illinois have now lost their battle with the virus and the daily average of deaths is climbing.
“In August, we were losing on average 14 people a day to this horrible disease, today it is 83.”
Those who most recently passed away range in age from 30s to over 100. Pritzker says more than 1,000 Illinoisans have died in just the last two weeks.
“COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death in Illinois behind heart disease and cancer. Not only that, between March and October COVID-19 took more lives than the next two highest causes of death, strokes, and accidents combined,” said Pritzker.
Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike is trying to dispel the virus is a hoax, conspiracy or just a cold.
“This not-real virus is overwhelming our hospitals. Right now it is taking up one of every four beds that’s occupied in hospitals across the state. This ‘just another cold’ is putting hundreds of people in ICU and on ventilators.”
Ezike says while it’s estimated that between 12,000 and 61,000 people in the US die annually from the flu, the coronavirus has already taken the lives of more than 246,000.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 8,922 new cases of the coronavirus disease. There were also an additional 140 deaths.
The Statewide seven-day positivity rate dropped six-tenths of a percent from Tuesday and is now 11.9-percent. There was a six-tenths of a percent drop in the Southern Illinois Region rate to 13.2-percent. Marion County’s rate reached a new high at 17.4-percent. The Metro-East Region saw its positivity rate decline a tenth of a percent to 16-percent. The East Central Illinois Region remains at 14-percent for the third straight day.
