* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,953 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 21 additional confirmed deaths.
Bond County: 1 female 60s
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 2 males 70s, 2 males 80s
DeKalb County: 1 female 60s
DuPage County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Gallatin County: 1 male 70s
Kane County: 1 male 90s
Knox County: 1 male 90s
Lake County: 1 male 90s
Madison County: 1 female 90s
Rock Island County: 1 male 80s
Saline County: 1 female 60s
Union County: 1 male 50s
Will County: 1 male 80s
Williamson County: 1 unknown 60s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 188,424 cases, including 7,594 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 41,686 specimens for a total of 2,937,749. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from July 30 – August 5 is 4.0%. As of last night, 1,517 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 346 patients were in the ICU and 132 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
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. IDPH will update these data once a week.
…Adding… Sun-Times…
“In the next two to four weeks, we’re really going to start seeing the effects,” University of Chicago epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon said. “We just started seeing an increase in patients in the hospital in the last week and a half. Deaths come into the picture a couple of weeks after that.”
That means the worst could be yet to come, as the Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported the latest 1,471 cases of the disease, marking two straight weeks with four-digit daily caseloads.
Illinois has averaged about 1,500 new cases per day over those two weeks — almost double the daily case average in June — but the 19 latest COVID-19 deaths reported Tuesday are just slightly above the average of 17 deaths per day during that time frame.
It takes some time for deaths to catch up to case trends in either direction. When Illinois’ coronavirus curve hit a valley with just 473 new cases reported June 15, the state still averaged about 42 deaths per day for the following two weeks, including 84 on June 17.
- Sonny - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 12:36 pm:
Warnings aren’t enough. We’re heading right back to where we were just now it’s going to impact the entire state.
- the Edge - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 1:19 pm:
Hmm, no phase 5 in the foreseeable future?
- Quibbler - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 1:31 pm:
How is it that Pritzker, Lightfoot, etc., are just sleep-walking through this? How many have to die before we go back a phase?
- Last Bull Moose - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 1:39 pm:
I would like to believe that we are smart enough and disciplined enough to reverse this trend. I would like to believe, but I don’t.
I see this all slip sliding away. We might be saved by clever instant testing. Otherwise it is siege mentality till the vaccine is deployed and proven effective. Maybe next summer.
- JB13 - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 1:40 pm:
– Hmm, no phase 5 in the foreseeable future? –
The guv has made clear Phase 5 wouldn’t happen til a vaccine is approved (or works?) or some other “effective treatment” is widely available (whatever that means).
So no amount of mask wearing or social distancing is going to matter for that.
I’ve found it helps the psyche to simply anticipate that Lockdown Part Deux was coming this fall, no matter what.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 2:14 pm:
We may have to go back a phase, but I think that’s the path of least resistance. We’ve treated mask/distancing violations like we treat speeding tickets (at least for individuals, with some-but-not-enough enforcement on businesses), if even that. Yes, closing and restricting businesses en mass will limit interactions and slow the spread, but at such a horrible cost in lost jobs/revenue/etc. Could we at least have a poll where voters are asked whether they’d prefer harsh enforcement of distancing/masks (fines, misdemeanors, public naming, etc.) over going back a phase? Maybe it would give cover to the legislature to spine-up.
- the Edge - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 2:17 pm:
phase 5 - vaccine or ” with the elimination of any new cases over a sustained period”
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 2:53 pm:
I think we’re stuck in Phase 4 for a year or so. There will be variations in some of the regions where incremental rollbacks (not quite back to “full” Phase 3 unless something dire occurs) and relaxations occur, and the Gov and IDPH have been pretty consistent about that.
- SSL - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 2:54 pm:
The deaths are coming unfortunately. Hopefully the spike will be mitigated if the demographics are different in this increase in cases. There’s also been some learning in how best to treat the virus. If the most vulnerable are underrepresented in this current wave it may not be as bad.
- BilboSwaggins - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 3:34 pm:
Maybe stop caving to the restaurant lobby and shut them back down. I cannot tell you how many people I know in my age group who are actively going out to bars. I know this isn’t a nice thing to say about one’s friends, but a lot of them are just plain out too dim to understand the risk their behavior poses to themselves and their loved ones. Close the bars, close the restaurants. Get this back on the right track, right now.
- BilboSwaggins - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 3:37 pm:
I mean today I walked into a business with a “No Mask No Service” sign and some clod inside had his mask down under his chin, talking to the clerk. The clerk, when I asked afterward why he didn’t say anything, said he’s scared to say something because he doesn’t think there’s anything he can actually do. Businesses have no recourse. Get a statewide $500 fine for unmasked people in public/businesses.
- MSIX - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 3:58 pm:
I grabbed take-out last week from a local restaurant here that has a bar. You have to grab your take-out at the bar area. The bar was packed end to end with folks 40ish and above. The staff and I were the only ones wearing masks. I don’t know how bad it will have to get before people begin to take this seriously.
- That'll be fine - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 3:59 pm:
I don’t see the fine resolving the issue of the customer without a proper mask. If the employee won’t say anything to him why do you expect him to call the cops to issue a fine when the person is all but certain to leave.
It’s just one day, but our new case rate today exceeds Texas and California.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 4:09 pm:
===our new case rate today exceeds Texas and California===
Texas reported 7,598 new cases today. Cali hasn’t reported yet.
- Frank talks - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 4:28 pm:
53,685 new cases today nationally 4,802,491 total positives guessing 5 million by Monday or Tuesday.
1320 new deaths today nationally 157,653 total deaths guessing 160k by Monday or Tuesday
The whole country needs to go back to Phase 3.
Schools haven’t fully opened in the South, what happens then? College kids are just starting to show up on campus, what happens then?
This can’t be wished away. The scientist who said this was like a fire looking for more fuel compared us to the fuel. If you keep fuel around the fire it’ll never go out.
- That'll be fine - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 4:55 pm:
Thanks Rich. Went off WorldOMeter and I guess their number was a partial at the time.
- MyTwoCents - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 4:59 pm:
The “freedom” (but no concept of civic responsibility) and “it doesn’t kill that many” folks are going to doom us all. Frankly Illinois is to the point where bars need to shut down and indoor dining needs to banned. Our fellow Illinoisans over the last month or so have proven incapable of doing the simple things necessary to slow the spread of COVID.
- illinifan - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 5:44 pm:
Not good. Son works in ER and saw 4 positive yesterday and 7 today after days of none or scattered here and there. Some have been young but he is also seeing people in their 70s. Had a few patients say they had attended large group events of over 200 people.
- Fool on the Hill - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 6:51 pm:
Sweden continues to confound the “experts” with another day of no Covid deaths and just one Covid death in August. The country of 10 million did not undergo a lockdown and has not closed its schools.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 7:18 pm:
=== Sweden continues to confound===
It doesn’t really.
As England learned, deciding Sweden had it right was about sacrificing lives at a level of “fate” and society isn’t keen on sacrificing lives.
If it was so confounding other countries by now would’ve flipped.
That’s not happening.
- Suburban Mom - Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 7:24 pm:
Uh, Swedish media literally today was reporting on a “worry rise” of Covid among young adults, and the country has the worst death rate of all Nordic countries — FIVE TIMES as high per capita as Norway, Finland, or Denmark.
And Sweden has universal health care. There’s NO WAY a death rate that low could be replicated in the US. And by European standards? They did a very bad job and no one should emulate them.
- Anon - Friday, Aug 7, 20 @ 7:58 am:
Also about Sweden they wouldn’t be in bars with 100s in it.
Part of what may contribute to lower deaths in Sweden is that people may have lowered their social interactions and number of contacts voluntarily without a strict lockdown. Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist, says that their modeling estimates people have around 30 percent of social interactions compared to before the pandemic, according to BBC.