State health officials on Sunday announced 1,453 new coronavirus cases and 17 additional deaths.
The new infections, which brought the state’s total to 301,541, were found among the latest batch of 51,656 tests reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health in the last day, lowering the state’s seven-day positivity rate — a figure experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading — to 3.3%.
Despite a mid-summer spike in cases, positivity rates have continued to decrease across most of the state over the last month thanks to an increase in testing capacity. Chicago is at 4.6% positivity, which is where it stood last weekend. Meanwhile, its surrounding regions check in at 5.5% or below.
Eleven of Sunday’s 17 fatalities were reported in Cook County, including a woman in her 30s.
In total, 8,791 Illinoisans have succumbed to the respiratory virus since March — about 2.9% of all Illinois coronavirus cases.
The recovery rate for Illinois coronavirus patients is 96%. Most people who contract it show mild or no symptoms.
As of Saturday, 1,521 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Illinois, with 384 of those patients in intensive care units and 140 on ventilators, which is still well below the state’s capacity, officials said.
