* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,759 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 30 additional confirmed deaths.
Carroll County: 1 male 80s
Clark County: 1 male 60s
Coles County: 1 female 80s
Cook County: 1 male 40s, 3 males 60s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
DuPage County: 2 females 80s
Gallatin County: 1 male 70s
Jefferson County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s
Lake County; 1 female 40s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
LaSalle County 1 male 90s
Rock Island County: 1 female 80s
St. Clair County: 1 female 40s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 90s
Union County: 1 female 70s
Will County: 1 male 50s
Winnebago County: 1 male 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 186,471 cases, including 7,573 deaths, in 102 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 46,668 specimens for a total of 2,896,063. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from July 29 – August 4 is 3.9%. As of last night, 1,552 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 368 patients were in the ICU and 129 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
- Still Waiting - Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:08 pm:
That Clark Co. death was a full two weeks ago. Why such a lag in reporting?
- Nieva - Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:12 pm:
Through all this, I had no personal knowledge of anyone dying. Today that changed when a friend and neighbor passed away in our small community.
- Altgelds Ghost - Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:18 pm:
Illinois is going backward.
I fear for our future.
- Huh? - Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:38 pm:
Illinois is back to the sickness levels of mid April.
We are going to be back under stay at home orders if this keeps up.
- ryan - Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 3:57 pm:
The reduction in Cook’s proportion of the state’s cases seems to be a lasting change. It’s now well below its population share.
I don’t think it makes sense to say “Illinois” is going back. The contours of this wave are completely different, hitting different groups of people, geographically, ethnically, and by age based on different risk assessments and behaviors.
But, all bets are off when school starts. Northwestern apparently has a commitment of 1,600 daily tests with a 1-2 day turnaround. That’s the whole full-time student population tested once every 10 days. If you add faculty, maybe every 11 days.
That’s impressive, and given Evanston’s relatively low level of transmission, I think they have a chance to winnow out disease during their in-place quarantine at the start of the year, and move forward with a low level of risk.
Alternatively, they’ll have the metrics they need to shut things down quickly if transmission starts to occur.
Something like that should have been the roadmap for school districts - standards for what proportion of students and teachers must be tested; and for how many positives trigger an automatic shutdown.
Such random testing would also give excellent comparative snap diagnostics of infection rates in the wider community, since children and teachers would have a demographically consistent relation to the larger population of each district.