* Dr. Ezike today…

The good news is that Illinois has seen declining cases and declining fatality totals week after week for the past five consecutive weeks. I commend every resident of Illinois for thinking of your neighbors across the state during this ongoing battle against COVID-19. Lives are in your hands, and you saved so many with your actions. These actions have given Illinois a leg up against this virus.

Since yesterday, we are reporting 601 people who are newly diagnosed with COVID-19 for a statewide total since the beginning of this pandemic of 137,825 cases. That does include 38 additional fatalities, for a total of 6,707 lives loss.

But let’s recall that at our highest, we reported 4000 cases within a single 24 hour period. That was about six weeks ago. And we reported 191 deaths on May 13th.

As of last night, over 1648 individuals were reported to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and of those 424 patients were in the ICU and 236 patients were on ventilators. We peaked at over 5000 patients in the hospital with COVID-19 and 1290 ICU patients on April 28th. S o we are delighted to see how far we’ve come and how many fewer patients we have hospitalized with COVID-19.

Please forget what you’ve heard. Increased testing is a good thing. Testing capacity across the state continues to grow. To date 1,399,000 tests have been run with 20,507 being reported in the last 24 hours. The highest number of specimens reported in a single 24 hour period was last Wednesday when nearly 30,000 tests were reported. These are all positive signs and affirm that the steps we have taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 are indeed working.

So as we move forward, we need to get things back to the things that we have been putting on hold. Now is the time to schedule your kids back to school physicals if you haven’t already. We need to make sure that the kids get checked out by their providers and get their life saving immunizations. Earlier during the pandemic, we had seen a decline in immunization. So now it’s time to catch up. No more waiting.

Doctor’s orders, Illinois.

Yes, there could be another surge of COVID-19 in the fall or perhaps earlier, but let’s make sure we take this opportunity now to get to our doctors, let’s get our immunizations, let’s get our health screenings. Let’s get as healthy as we can. Your baseline health status affects how you fare against this virus.

This includes parents and teachers. Get your bloodwork done, your mammogram. I went for my mammogram this morning. Get your colonoscopies, take care of yourself and your loved ones. Let’s continue to do what we know works. I saw somewhere that they referred to it as the three W’s. And so I’m going to be using this: wash your hands, watch your distance, you know that’s referring to the six feet, and wear a face covering. Let’s not lose ground. Lives are in our hands. Thank you so much.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

* Press release…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 601 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 38 additional confirmed deaths.

Boone County – 1male 60s
Cook County – 1 female 40s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 3 males 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 3 females 90s, 2 males 90s, 2 females 100+
DuPage County – 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
Jefferson County – 1 male 70s
Kane County – 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s
Kankakee County – 1 female 60s
Kendall County – 1 male 90s
Lake County – 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 2 males 80s
Macon County – 1 male 80s
McHenry County – 1 female 80s
St. Clair County – 1 female 60s
Will County – 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
Winnebago County – 1 female 50s

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 137,825 cases, including 6,707 deaths, in 101 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 20,507 specimens for a total of 1,399,510. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from June 16–June 22 is 2%.

Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. See CDC definition of a probable case on its website. IDPH will update these data once a week.