Health officials on Thursday announced 91 more people have died in Illinois of COVID-19, as another 766 tested positive for the coronavirus.
That marks a full week with fewer than 100 deaths reported per day by the Illinois Department of Public Health as the state appears to be emerging from the worst of the pandemic.
Last month saw 16 days with more than 100 coronavirus deaths each, including the state’s worst daily report of 192 deaths on May 13.
But the latest daily toll of 91 is still almost on par with May’s average of just below 100 deaths per day.
In June, two daily death counts have surpassed 100 so far, most recently on June 4, but an additional five days have seen at least 70 deaths.
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The virus has claimed 6,185 lives overall across the state. The recovery rate is 92%.
Thursday also marked a sixth straight daily case total below 1,000. The 625 new cases announced a day earlier was the lowest daily count in Illinois since March 30.
Since the state’s first case was confirmed in late January, a total of 130,603 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.
An additional 178 deaths and 724 non-fatal infections are considered “probable” cases of COVID-19, health officials said, though those potential victims and patients were never tested.
More than 22,000 test results were received Wednesday, and more than 1.1 million tests have been administered overall.
The state’s rolling testing positivity rate over the last week is 4%, and all four regions remain on track with hospitalization benchmarks to advance to Phase 4 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan June 26.
Beyond that, the state won’t completely reopen until there is a COVID-19 vaccine, a widely available and effective treatment or “the elimination of new cases over a sustained period of time through herd immunity or other factors,” according to the governor’s plan.
