COVID Cases Climb, Positivity Rate Falls After Illinois Reopening

ILLINOIS — Two weeks after fully reopening, Illinois reports 1,744 new cases of the coronavirus and 66 deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. While those numbers are far lower than those reported earlier in the year, they are up significantly from the 401 new cases and 22 deaths reported on June 11, the day the state fully reopened and moved to Phase 5 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Restore Illinois plan.

After falling steadily for weeks, the new cases and deaths have been climbing since June 14, when the state reported just 165 new cases and 9 deaths — the lowest since March 2020. The positivity rate, however, has continued to tick lower.

Officials say many new cases are likely being driven by lax safety standards among unvaccinated Illinoisans. For example, officials said, in mid-June, more than 50 teens and adults tested positive for the virus at a youth camp in central Illinois. One person was hospitalized.

Only a handful of the campers were vaccinated, and the camp was not checking vaccination status or requiring unvaccinated individuals to wear masks while indoors, according to state health officials.

Complicating matters, public health officials say a new coronavirus strain first detected in India — called the delta variant — is more transmissible and more deadly than the variants that spread through the United States last year.

Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Thursday that her agency will continue to monitor variant cases as the fall and winter approach.

"I am very pleased with where we are, but we are not done with COVID," she said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Vaccines are highly effective against all variants, and officials encourage everyone over 12 years of age to get the shot as soon as possible.

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As of Friday, Illinois had administered more than 12.3 million vaccines, with an average of about 29,000 doses per day. Nearly 71 percent of adults in the state have received at least one shot of a vaccine and more than 54 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The statewide case positivity rate is currently 0.6 percent, while the test positivity rate stands at 0.8 percent.

Since March 2020, a total of 1.39 million cases have been diagnosed in the state, and the virus has killed 23,199 Illinoisans, some younger than 1 year old. Four-hundred thirty-five patients remain hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, including 99 in intensive care and 53 on ventilators.