50% increase in daily Illinois COVID deaths since last week

The coronavirus claimed the lives of another 63 people in Illinois Tuesday as the state’s average number of deaths increased 50% in the past week.

The daily number of deaths has exceeded 50 for five of the past seven days, and the average number of deaths per day increased from 34 last Tuesday to 51 this week.

Another 10,264 people in the state tested positive for COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to just shy of 2 million.

The state is averaging more than 10,000 cases daily, a 47% increase from the average daily rate a week ago. The average number of cases has been gradually rising in Illinois the past two months.

Chicago’s test positivity rate is 7.3%— nearly double the 4.1% daily average of last week. And the city is averaging 1,776 cases a day, up 79% from 991 a week ago. Hospitalizations are up 12%, from 56 a day a week ago to 62 a day now.

In the new year, the city will require restaurant, bar and gym goers to provide proof of vaccination. The order will remain in effect until the city is “through this Omicron-driven surge and the risk of overwhelming hospital capacity has passed,” the mayor was quoted as saying.

And with the holidays mere days away, the demand for COVID-19 testing remains high, with 179,269 people being tested Tuesday, just shy of the state’s seven-day average for daily tests.

Contributing: Fran Spielman