Illinois records 5,742 new COVID-19 cases, another 156 deaths

The state’s pandemic death toll stands at 15,799, with 930,849 confirmed cases.

SHARE Illinois records 5,742 new COVID-19 cases, another 156 deaths
Dr. Nancy Glick, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital on the Southwest Side, which received its first round of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020.

Dr. Nancy Glick, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital on the Southwest Side, which received its first round of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Another 5,742 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Illinois, state health officials announced Christmas Day, the second lowest daily caseload for the state since late October but still more than double the worst days in the summer.

An additional 156 deaths were also reported Friday — including two Cook County men in their 40s and a DuPage woman in her 100s — bringing the state’s pandemic death toll to 15,799. There have been 930,849 confirmed cases in Illinois so far.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

As daily case totals have started to fall in recent weeks, a subsequent decrease in deaths is beginning to follow. The state’s rolling average daily death rate stands at 112, down from 138 a week ago. A total of 3,521 people have died of the coronavirus in Illinois this month alone, an average of 140 per day. There were about 2,500 deaths in all of November, about 80 per day.

Almost 99,000 coronavirus tests were processed in Illinois labs the past 24 hours for a total of 12.89 million since the start of the pandemic.

As of Christmas Eve, 4,352 people statewide were hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19, with 928 of those patients in the ICU and 538 on ventilators.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

The Latest
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
The way inflation is measured masks certain costs that add to the prices that consumers pay every day. Not surprisingly, higher costs mean lower consumer confidence, no matter what Americans are told about an improving economy.
With Easter around the corner, chocolate makers and food businesses are feeling the impact of soaring global cocoa prices and it’s also hitting consumers.