COVID-19 deaths in Illinois dip to lowest daily number since March

Hospital bed usage by virus patients declines sharply over holiday weekend as well

By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois
jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Illinois declined significantly over the holiday weekend and into Monday, touching their lows since the state began reporting the figures daily in April.

There were 1,395 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of 11:59 p.m. Sunday as the number remained below 1,400 for three days after spiking to 1,651 on Thursday.

Of those hospitalized at the end of Sunday, 321 were in intensive care unit beds, the second-lowest number reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health during the pandemic’s presence in Illinois. The 304 reported at the end of July 4 marked the lowest in one day.

Ventilators in use by COVID-19 patients at the end of Sunday fell to 151 – the lowest IDPH has reported thus far.

The state also reported just six new COVID-19-related deaths each on Sunday and Monday, marking a low since March 25. That’s after death counts of 10 on Saturday and 17 on Friday.

Sundays and Mondays, historically, have had lower casualties reported by IDPH than the rest of the week throughout the pandemic, however, and IDPH warns in its daily releases that all data “are provisional and will change.”

A disclaimer reported daily reads: “In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered.”

The seven-day rolling positivity rate remained at 2.6 percent Monday for the seventh straight day after ticking downward from 2.7 percent.

Monday’s one-day rate was 2.9 percent, however, as the state reported 614 new cases among 21,134 test results reported, a lower-than-normal number coming out of the holiday weekend.

From Friday through Sunday, the state reported 868, 862 and 639 new cases each day with one-day positivity rates ranging from 2.3 to 2.5. Average daily test output for the three-day span was more than 31,000.

Thus far, there have been 7,026 COVID-19-related deaths reported by the state among 147,865 total confirmed cases. There have been 1.78 million tests results reported.

The recovery rate for those 42 days removed from a positive test is 94 percent, according to IDPH.

The graph shows the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported each day by the Illinois Department of Public Health. (Credit: Jerry Nowicki of Capitol News Illinois)

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.