Illinois reports 1,403 new COVID-19 cases, 5 additional deaths

Illinois health officials Sunday announced 1,403 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, a sharp decline from the massive daily tally reported a day earlier.

On Saturday, Illinois reported 2,806 new coronavirus cases, one of the highest daily totals since the state’s worst period of the pandemic.

The new cases also come two days after the state recorded 5,368 cases of the coronavirus, a record high the Illinois Department of Public Health attributed to three days’ worth of delayed test results due to a data-processing backlog.

Health officials also announced five additional deaths attributed to the coronavirus, raising the state’s pandemic death toll to 8,171.

A total of 249,580 people in Illinois have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and the state’s recovery rate is at 96%. More than 4.4 million tests have been conducted statewide.

Dr. Anthony Fauci in an interview with Bloomberg last week singled out Illinois among a handful of states at risk of a rise in COVID-19 cases heading into the Labor Day holiday weekend.

On Friday, the state health department announced 29 Illinois counties — about one-third of the map — were at a coronavirus “warning level.”