72 more Illinois coronavirus deaths

Health officials Saturday announced 72 more people have died of COVID-19 in Illinois, raising the state’s death toll from the pandemic to 5,864.

Another 975 people tested positive for the coronavirus from among the latest batch of 21,155 samples taken, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Since the state’s first case was confirmed more than four months ago, a total of 126,890 have tested positive for the virus. The vast majority have recovered.

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More than a million people have been tested overall, with the state’s rolling positivity rate over the last week standing at 5.5%, officials said.

Just over half the state’s coronavirus deaths — 3,053 — have been tied to nursing homes or other long-term care facilities, according to weekly numbers released by the health department Friday evening.

But those same care facilities only account for about 15% of the state’s overall case total, with 18,837 of their residents testing positive so far.

A week since the state entered Phase 3 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan, all four regions of the state were hitting hospitalization and testing benchmarks that would keep them on pace to enter Phase 4.

That would allow for gatherings of up to 50 people, with face coverings and social distancing still the norm. The earliest that can happen is June 26, Pritzker has said.