Coronavirus Kill 14 More People In Illinois: ‘The Virus Is Winning The War’ – Block Club Chicago

CHICAGO Fourteen more deaths from coronavirus were reported in Illinois during the past day.

The states and citys outlook look grim, with positivity rates, new cases, hospitalizations and deaths quickly rising. Much of the suburbs will soon face tighter restrictions, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Monday. Chicago and the rest of Cook County are struggling to control their outbreaks, as well.

The virus is winning the war right now, Pritzker said at a Monday coronavirus update.

The states new daily cases are up nearly 380 percent since Oct. 1, Pritzker said, and Illinois positivity rate has risen 180 percent in the past five weeks. Coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths per day are up more than 150 percent in the same time period, he said.

Regions 7 and 8 covering Will, Kankakee, Kane and DuPage counties have been placed under Tier 2 mitigations, meaning theyll face tighter restrictions on bars, restaurants and sporting and recreational events, Pritzker said. People should no longer gather in groups of 10 or more in those areas, as well.

But those mitigations can only slow the viruss spread if people follow them, Pritzker said. He and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, urged people to follow the restrictions and to take other safety measures like wash their hands, wear masks and practice social distancing to slow the viruss spread, bend the curve and save lives.

If people follow the mitigations, it will take only several weeks for the curve to start bending, the officials said.

We all want an end to this pandemic. We are all on the same team, Ezike said. We want to be able to hang out with our friends. We want to enjoy our favorite restaurants. We want to have our large weddings and all the things that have been sacrificed since March.

But theres only a few paths to get us there, and one is by reducing the amount of virus circulating so that we no longer see sustainable spread. We do this by limiting our group sizes as well as wearing our mask and keeping our distance. By not doing these things, the virus continues to get ahead of us.

Among the states latest victims were six people from Cook County. At least 10,210 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 353 deaths are considered to be probably related to coronavirus.

The state also reported 10,573 confirmed cases, bringing the total in Illinois up to 498,560.

Illinois seven-day positivity rate rose to 11.4 percent with 64,760 tests reported. It was at 10.6 percent Sunday. The figure represents total confirmed cases divided by total tests.

Illinois seven-day positivity, which measures how many tests were positive out of total tests, hit 12.4 percent. It was at 12 percent Sunday.

As of Sunday night, 4,409 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Illinois, including 857 people in the ICU and 376 people using ventilators.

Over the weekend, the state also saw 118 deaths and more than 22,000 cases.

In Chicago, one death and 2,435 confirmed cases were reported since Sunday but 16 deaths and 4,190 cases were reported over the weekend.

There have been at least 3,138 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago and 119,960 confirmed cases, according to state data.

The city is seeing an average of 1,599 cases being reported per day, a 41 percent uptick from the prior week. The citys seven-day positivity rate has risen to 12.4 percent, up from 9.5 percent the week before.

The city is also now seeing an average of six deaths per day; for months, that number hadnt risen above two or three per day. But officials have said deaths are beginning to rise in Chicago, and theyll go higher as new cases and hospitalizations spike.

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Coronavirus Kill 14 More People In Illinois: 'The Virus Is Winning The War' - Block Club Chicago