SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Illinois health officials reported 6,980 new cases of coronavirus Sunday and 35 additional deaths.
There is now a total of 417,280 cases since the pandemic began with 9,792 total deaths.
In the past 24 hours, 78,458 tests were conducted for a total of 7,808,303.
As of Saturday night, 3,294 people in Illinois were reported to be hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 692 patients were in the ICU and 284 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity rate from Oct. 25 to Oct. 31 is 8.0%.
This is the number that IDPH has been consistently reporting in its daily releases and is calculated using total cases over total tests.
The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from Oct. 25 – Oct. 31 is 9.4%.
“Case positivity and test positivity rate are both relevant and offer insight into the bigger COVID-19 picture. Case positivity helps us understand whether changes in the number of confirmed cases is due to more testing or due to more infections. Whereas, test positivity accounts for repeated testing and helps us understand how the virus is spreading in the population over time,” IDPH said in its release.
Sunday’s numbers stop the streak of three straight recording-breaking case days. On Saturday, 7,899 new cases were reported with 46 additional deaths.
With the noted increase in positivity rate across the state, Governor Pritzker along with the IDPH announced Sunday that resurgence mitigations will go into effect beginning Wednesday, November 4 in Region 2. All 11 Illinois regions will be operating under resurgence mitigation efforts beginning Wednesday.
The region sustained an average positivity rate of 8 percent or higher for three consecutive days, placing the region into the same mitigation framework as the rest of the state. Region 2 recorded a 9.3% positivity rate as of Sunday.
Region 2 includes the following counties:
- Rock Island County
- Henry County
- Bureau County
- Putnam County
- Kendall County
- Grundy County
- Mercer County
- Knox County
- Henderson County
- Warren County
- McDonough County
- Fulton County
- Stark County
- Marshall County
- Peoria County
- Tazewell County
- McLean County
- Woodford County
- Livingston County
- LaSalle County
The mitigation efforts include no indoor dining or bar service, outdoor dining closing at 11:00 p.m. and limiting gatherings to 25 people or less or 25 percent capacity.
Pritzker’s administration announced distribution of more than $55.7 million in emergency grants and assistance to small businesses in Region 2 alone. Businesses will also receive priority consideration for the Business Interruption Grants (BIG) program.