* Press release…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,477 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 7 additional confirmed deaths.

• Cook County: 1 male 50s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s
• Ford County: 1 male 60s
• Macon County: 1 female 80s

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 275,735 cases, including 8,457 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 14 – September 20 is 3.5%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 38,234 specimens for a total of 5,143,387. As of last night, 1,436 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 364 patients were in the ICU and 153 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately 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.

*All data are provisional and will change. 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. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.

* Press release…

At an event in Springfield, Governor JB Pritzker and IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike celebrated the state surpassing 5 million COVID-19 tests since the beginning of the pandemic. The governor and Dr. Ezike also detailed how the state continues to strengthen its nation-leading testing operation as Illinois continues to set new records in daily tests.

“In a pandemic, widely available testing and faster results mean our people are safer,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Here in Illinois, we’ve steadily added new in-state commercial labs and greater hospital and university lab capacity utilization to get to an average of more than 50,000 tests per day. We do three and a half times the testing the average state does. And we’re one of the fastest states in delivering tests back to our residents. I intend for Illinois to remain a leader in the fight against COVID-19, in part by making sure we are on the leading edge of technology and its proliferation throughout the state.”

“Testing is a critical step in reducing the spread of the virus, because a positive test result begins the contact tracing process, which identifies who was exposed and needs to be quarantined to prevent further spread,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. “Currently IDPH has 11 community-based testing sites around the state, as well as mobile testing teams that are deployed each week to various locations throughout Illinois. Anyone can go there to get tested, or at any state testing site. You don’t have to have symptoms, or a doctor’s referral or order, and there is no cost to you for testing.”

ILLINOIS SETS TESTING RECORDS

On Saturday, Illinois surpassed more than 5 million tests since the beginning of this pandemic – making ours one of the first states in the nation to do so. This benchmark was reached as the state has expanded testing capacity to over 52,000 tests a day on average and as Illinois labs reported more than 74,000 tests in a one-day period over the past weekend – two new highs.

Compared to the rest of the country, Illinois ranks third in the number of daily tests over the last week, behind only California and New York, and currently does 3.5 times the amount of testing than the average state. Illinois tops the Midwest by a large margin, doing 50 percent more testing than the second highest state, even while those states are among the top ten in the nation.

Illinois Department of Public Health labs have been a key part of this effort. The state’s three labs alone have done over 615,000 COVID-19 tests, more than 12 percent of all tests done in the state since the pandemic began. Beginning with a single-day capacity of 219 in March, IDPH labs have been running over 5,000 a day since June, a 23-fold increase in three months’ time.

TESTING OPERATION SPANS EVERY CORNER OF ILLINOIS

As the first in the nation to run its own tests in state, Illinois’ testing operation spans approximately 300 locations, including more than 100 Federally Qualified Health Centers which serve the most vulnerable in our communities and 25 state testing sites and teams. In order to respond to outbreaks, the state has mobile testing capacity to reach areas in every corner of the state, including places like meatpacking plants, nursing homes, migrant worker housing and other communities less able to access traditional testing clinics or in areas facing high levels of community spread – like the Metro East where mobile teams are currently deployed.

To continue building on this progress, the state is looking to new methods of testing including more fast-acting antigen testing like Illinois’ own Abbott’s BinaxNOW, saliva testing like that developed at Illinois’ own flagship University campus and continuing to grow our testing targeted at vulnerable communities. As has been the case since the beginning of the pandemic, all state-run testing sites are available to residents free of charge, with no insurance required.

* Sunday…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,402 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 14 additional confirmed deaths.

Cook County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Douglas County: 1 female 70s
Greene County: 1 male 60s
Lake County: 1 male 70s
Macon County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s
Perry County: 1 female 70s
Whiteside County: 1 male 60s
Woodford County: 1 male 50s

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 274,258 cases, including 8,450 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 13 – September 19 is 3.5%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 48,011 specimens for a total of 5,105,153. As of last night, 1,417 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 357 patients were in the ICU and 151 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

* Saturday…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,529 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.

Bureau County: 1 female 50s
Cook County: 1 male 50s, 2 females 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Edgar County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
Greene County: 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
LaSalle County: 1 male 50s
Macon County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 90s
Macoupin County: 1 female 70s
Montgomery County: 1 male 80s
Rock Island County: 1 female 70s
St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
Tazewell County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Warren County: 1 male 80s
Will County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 272,856 cases, including 8,436 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 12 – September 18 is 3.5%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 74,286 specimens for a total of 5,057,142. As of last night, 1,469 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 326 patients were in the ICU and 141 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.