Illinois reached another milestone Sunday, surpassing 4 million coronavirus tests as COVID-19 cases continue to rise as part of a month-long trend.
State health officials on Sunday announced 1,992 new coronavirus cases and 11 additional deaths.
Sunday marked the 40th consecutive day Illinois has recorded a four-digit daily caseload. This month, the state has recorded 2,000 or more cases in a day eight times.
Illinois is averaging about 1,817 new infections each day this month, up sharply from July’s daily average of 1,150.
The newest infections announced Sunday, which bring the state’s total to 233,355 cases over the last seven months, were detected among the latest batch of 43,693 tests processed in the last day, keeping the state’s seven-day positivity rate to 4.2%.
In February, Illinois became the first state to run its own COVID-19 tests. Since then, it has processed 4,016,782 tests. In the last month alone, the state has processed more than 1.3 coronavirus tests, reporting an average of 43,907 test results every 24 hours.
On Friday, Pritzker encouraged Illinois residents to get tested for the coronavirus.
“Increasing testing has been central to Illinois’ strategy to root out this virus and keep our residents safe,” he tweeted. “Please, for the future of our state, get tested.”
One day later, Pritzker shared a more somber message on Twitter. He called Saturday a “solemn day” after the state surpassed 8,000 coronavirus-related deaths since March.
Sunday’s fatalities — eight of which were recorded in Cook County and included a Cook County woman in her 30s — brings the state’s death toll to 8,019.
Still, the recovery rate for Illinois coronavirus patients is 95%. Most people who contract it show mild or no symptoms.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations dropped over the last day. As of Saturday night, 1,472 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Illinois, with 318 of those patients in intensive care units and 155 on ventilators, officials said.
