Monday, November 9, 2020
Public Health Officials Announce 10,573 New Cases of Coronavirus Disease

[December 16, 2020]  The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 10,573 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 14 additional deaths.

- Carroll County: 1 male 60s

- Coles County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 70s

- Cook County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 70s, 3 males 80s, 1 male 90s

- DuPage County: 1 female 80s

- LaSalle County: 1 male 70s

- Macoupin County: 1 female 90s

- Tazewell County: 1 female 70s

- Will County: 1 female over 100

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 498,560 cases, including 10,210 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 64,760 specimens for a total 8,469,064. As of last night, 4,409 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 857 patients were in the ICU and 376 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from November 2 – November 8 is 11.4%. This is the number that IDPH has been consistently reporting in its daily releases and is calculated using total cases over total tests. Similar to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH has been using test positivity for regional mitigation metrics on its website since mid-July. Test positivity is calculated using the number of COVID-19 positive tests over total tests. On October 29, 2020, IDPH began reporting the statewide test positivity in its daily releases. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from November 2, 2020 – November 8, 2020 is 12.4%.

Case positivity and test positivity rate are both relevant and offer insight into the bigger COVID-19 picture. Case positivity helps us understand whether changes in the number of confirmed cases is due to more testing or due to more infections. Whereas, test positivity accounts for repeated testing and helps us understand how the virus is spreading in the population over time.

Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, beginning November 6, 2020 and going forward, IDPH will report confirmed cases and probable cases combined. A confirmed case is laboratory confirmed via molecular test. A probable case meets clinical criteria AND is epidemiologically linked or has a positive antigen test. If a probable case is later confirmed, the case will be deduplicated and will only be counted once. Probable deaths and confirmed deaths will continue to be reported separately.

*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email [e-mail].

[Illinois Office of Communication and Information]