Illinois announces 39 new COVID-19 deaths, highest in one day since June 26 – Northwest Herald

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The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,492 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 39 additional deaths Tuesday. That is the highest number of COVID-19 related deaths announced in a single day since June 26.

The state received the results of 22,961 COVID-19 tests in the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday afternoon. That is the fewest amount of tests reported by the state since July 6. The seven-day rolling average of Illinois positivity rate increased to 4.3%.

"We reached the maximum capacity of our system and currently are in the process of expanding this," IDPH spokesperson Melaney Arnold wrote in response to a question about why the day's test number was so low. "That work is underway now."

"Reporting test results is working, but it is currently slow and backlogged due to the large volume of testing data that we have processed since the beginning of the pandemic," Arnold said. "We are working on [eliminating] the testing data backlog."

In a response to a follow-up question on if this would affect when someone gets a test result, Arnold said "This does not delay a person getting their test results."

Illinois now has seen 236,515 total cases of the virus and 8,064 people have died. The state has conducted 4,087,122 tests since the start of the pandemic.

As of late Monday, Illinois had 1,513 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 362 were in intensive care units, and 146 were on ventilators.

Regional update: According to aJuly 15 updateto the governor's COVID-19 response plan, the state will be tracking public health metrics in a slightly different way to monitor any potential resurgences of COVID-19. Additional restrictions can be placed on any of the state's 11 health regions if the region sustains an increase in its average positivity rate for seven days out of a ten day period.

A region may also become more restrictive if there is a seven-day increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19-related illness or a reduction in hospital medical/surgical beds or ICU capacity below 20%. If a region reports three consecutive days with greater than an 8% average positivity rate, additional infection mitigation will be considered through atiered system of restriction guidelinesoffered by the IDPH.

The North Suburban region (McHenry and Lake counties) has seen four days of positivity increases and two days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased to 6.1%. Currently, 42% of medical/surgical beds are available and 48% of ICU beds.

The West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) has seen five days of positivity increases and two days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate increased to 5.9%. Currently, 38% of medical/surgical beds are available and 49% of ICU beds.

The South Suburban region (Will and Kankakee counties) has seen five days of positivity increases and four days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate remained flat at 8.8%. Additional mitigation measures from the IDPH have been placed on the region and it has less than two weeks to get down below 8%, or it will face additional mitigations. To return to the standard Phase 4 restrictions, the region will need to maintain an average positivity rate of less than or equal to 6.5% over a 14-day period. Currently, 30% of the region's medical/surgical beds are available and 29% of ICU beds.

The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen five days of positivity increases and two days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate increased to 5.5%. Currently, 46% of medical/surgical beds are available and 47% of ICU beds.

The North-Central region (Bureau, Fulton, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Kendall, Knox, La Salle, Livingston, Marshall, McDonough, McLean, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Tazewell, Warren and Woodford counties) has seen four days of positivity increases and four days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate remained flat at 6.8%. Currently, 46% of medical/surgical beds are available and 45% of ICU beds.

Chicago has seen four days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate remained flat at 5.6%. Currently, 29% of medical/surgical beds are available and 41% of ICU beds.

Suburban Cook County has seen four days of positivity increases and five days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased slightly to 6.7%. Currently, 29% of medical/surgical beds are available and 41% of ICU beds.

Region 4, near St. Louis, has the state's worst positivity rate at 9.6%, but the rate did decrease 0.8 percentage points in one day. Region 6, which includes Champaign, has the state's best positivity rate at 2.0%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points in one day.

To see how other regions across the state are doing, see the full IDPH dashboard here.

Newly reported deaths include:

Adams County: 1 male 80s

Bureau County: 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s

Christian County: 1 female 80s

Coles County: 1 male 70s

Cook County: 1 female 30s, 2 females 70s, 4 males 70s, 1 female 80s

DeKalb County: 1 female 90s

DuPage County: 1 female 80s

Jackson County: 1 male 60s

Kane County: 1 male 80s

Lake County: 1 female 80s

La Salle County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s

Macon County: 1 male 70s

Macoupin County: 1 female 70s

Madison County: 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s

Mercer County: 1 male 90s

Morgan County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s

Moultrie County: 1 male 80s

Rock Island County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s

Sangamon County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s

Tazewell County: 1 female 70s

Vermilion County: 1 male 60s

Will County: 1 male 60s

Williamson County: 1 female 70s

Winnebago County: 1 female 80s

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Illinois announces 39 new COVID-19 deaths, highest in one day since June 26 - Northwest Herald