Illinois reports 23 more deaths from coronavirus; among lowest daily increases in months

Illinois health officials on Monday announced another 23 deaths from COVID-19, and increased the state’s pandemic death toll to 5,924.

It’s among the lowest daily death totals announced in the past two months. The lowest reported increases since the beginning of April were 22 on June 1 and 16 on April 2.

The deaths were centered in five counties — Cook, DuPage, Lake, St. Clair and Winnebago — and all victims were older than 50.

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The Illinois Department of Public Health also revealed an additional 658 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, raising the total affected population to 128,415. The new positive cases came from the 16,099 tests taken within the last 24 hours, state officials said.

Even though 23 new deaths from COVID-19 were reported, the total statewide death tally grew by just 20 due to the reclassification of some prior deaths.

After weeks of mostly triple-digit increases in the death tally, all but one day last week saw just double-digit increases. The recent encouraging numbers trend arrives as the state and city have moved into Phase 3 of the five-phase plan for reopening announced by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.