87 more Illinois coronavirus deaths, but another low daily case count

Public health officials on Wednesday announced another 546 people in Illinois have tested positive for COVID-19, while an additional 87 deaths were attributed to the virus.

That’s the state’s second-lowest daily case count since March 30 after Monday’s mark of 473 cases, as the state’s downward case trend from an apparent mid-May peak continues.

But the latest 87 deaths reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health are well above the state’s daily average toll so far this month. At least 1,103 people have died of COVID-19 in Illinois so far in June, with about 65 deaths reported per day.

Compare that to May, when about 99 coronavirus deaths were reported per day for a total of 3,076 — nearly half the overall toll of 6,485 since the state’s first confirmed in mid-March.

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Still, the recovery rate for the 134,185 people who have tested positive for the virus since late January is 93%.

An additional 181 deaths and 861 infections are considered “probable cases,” though those people weren’t tested. Almost 1.3 million coronavirus tests have been administered over the last four months, including the latest batch of nearly 30,000 test results. Cases have been confirmed in all but one of Illinois’ 102 counties.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker himself was among the latest to test negative for the virus. He was re-tested Tuesday after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced he’d tested positive 10 days after appearing at an event with the Democratic governor and a handful of other elected officials.

The statewide rolling positivity rate held steady at 3%, keeping all four regions of the state on pace to advance to the next stage of Pritzker’s reopening plan June 26, though Chicago officials have said the city will likely advance July 1.