Suburban Cook County Hits 'Warning Level,' 6.7% Positivity Rate

COOK COUNTY, IL — Coronavirus positivity rates rose in all but one of Illinois' 11 coronavirus mitigation regions last week, as state public health officials said an additional 10 counties had reached a warning level for the virus.

In Region 10 — suburban Cook County — the percentage of coronavirus tests to come back positive increased on four of the previous 10 days, rising to 6.4 percent, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health Data through Tuesday, the most recent day where data is available.

While Illinois remains in Phase 4 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Restore Illinois plan, two of the state's 11 resurgence mitigation regions — Region 4 and Region 7 — have had new restrictions imposed over the past two weeks. The governor warned additional restrictions could be in store next week for the Metro East region, which has seen its coronavirus positivity rate continue to rise.

There are two triggers state officials have established that will lead to new measures to mitigate against the spread of the coronavirus and a potential surge in new case.

One is an average coronavirus test positivity rate above 8 percent for three days in a row. A positivity rate under 5 percent suggests enough tests are being conducted, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Only Region 6, the Champaign Region, has a positivity rate of 5 percent or below. The Central Illinois region was the only one in the state to have its positivity rate decline during the previous week when it fell from 1.9 percent to 1.7 percent. In Southern Illinois, Region 4's positivity rate reached at least 10.4 percent this week.

The other trigger for new mitigation measures is a combination of seven days of increasing positivity and insufficient hospital capacity — as measured by less than 20 percent of beds available or an increase in the rounded rolling average of daily new hospital admissions with "COVID-like illinesses," or CLI, for seven of the previous 10 days.

Public health officials announced Friday that 30 counties had reached a COVID-19 "warning level," 10 more than a week earlier. For the first time, suburban Cook County was among the counties to reach a level of concern two or more of eight metrics.

The others include Bureau, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Cook, Cumberland, Effingham, Fayette, Greene, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Jasper, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Johnson, Madison, Monroe, Morgan, Perry, Pike, Randolph, Sangamon, Shelby, St. Clair, Union, Warren, White, Will and Williamson counties.

"In some counties, local law enforcement and states’ attorneys are not enforcing important mitigation measures like social distancing and the wearing of face coverings," IDPH officials said in a release. The state public health department now provides additional county-level metrics for school determination of community spread, including youth cases.

As of Thursday night, there were 1,546 people in Illinois hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase of 20 compared to a week earlier, according to state health department data. The number of people hooked up to ventilators increased by 11 to 132 during that period. There were 352 patients in intensive care units, one more than last week.

Nearly 8,000 of the more than 181,000 Americans to die of coronavirus have been Illinois residents, according to counts from the Illinois Department of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University.

In the suburban Cook County region, the number of new hospitalizations rose for the second consecutive week. There was a rounded rolling average of 22 people newly admitted to hospitals in the Cook County suburbs, up by one from the week before and four from the week before that. The region's percentage of available hospital beds remained mostly stable.

Data through Tuesday was released Friday. Find the latest metrics from all regions below:

Region 1 (Rockford EMS region)

• 5.1 percent coronavirus positivity rate on Aug. 25, up from 4.5 percent last week
• Seven days of increases in positivity out of the past 10
• A rounded rolling average of three new hospital admissions with "COVID-like illnesses" a day, the same number as a week prior
• 43 percent of surgical beds are available, up from 42 percent last week. 52 percent of ICU beds are available, down from 45 percent a week earlier

Region 2 (Peoria EMS region)

• 6.4 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, up by 0.6 percentage points compared to last week
• Five days of positivity increases out of the past 10
• Eight people admitted to the region's hospitals every day, the same amount as last week
• 38 percent of surgical beds are available, up 2 points from last week, 43 percent of ICU beds are available, down 1 point compared to last week

Region 3 (Springfield EMS region)

• 5.7 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, up by 0.2 points compared to the previous week
• Two days of positivity rate increases out of the past 10
• The number of average new hospital admissions remained at five for the third consecutive week
• 35 percent of surgical beds are available, up by 1 point in the past week, and 36 percent of ICU beds are available in the region, down from 43 percent a week earlier

Region 4 (Edwardsville EMS region)

• 10.4 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, up by 1 percentage point compared to a week earlier, when state officials imposed additional restrictions on activities in the area. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said additional measures would be imposed on Sept. 2 if the rate did not decline
• Six days of positivity increases out of the past 10 days
• Six people admitted to hospitals in the region every day, on average, with COVID-19 symptoms, up from four a week earlier
• 29 percent of surgical beds are available, down 2 points from the prior week, 37 percent of ICU beds are available, 1 point more than a week earlier

Region 5 (Marion EMS region)

• 7.6 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, up by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous week.
• Six days of positivity rate increases out of the previous 10 days
• Three new hospital admissions a day, on average, up from two the prior week
• 46 percent of surgical beds are available, down 1 percentage point from a week earlier. 55 percent of ICU beds are available, up 3 points from the prior week

Region 6 (Champaign EMS region)

• 1.7 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, a decline of 0.2 points from the prior week. The region has the lowest positivity rate in the state and was the only region to see a decline over the week.
• Positivity rates increased on only two of the prior 10 days
• 1.9 percent positivity rate on Aug. 18, down by 0.6 percentage points compared to last week
• One day of positivity increases, three days of declines in past 10 days.
• An average of five people a day are being hospitalized in the region, down from eight a week earlier
• 34 percent of surgical beds and 43 percent of ICU beds are available, compared to 36 percent of surgical beds and 40 percent of ICU beds last week.

Region 7 (Will, Kankakee counties)

• 8.4 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, up from 7.9 percent the prior week. Public health officials imposed additional restrictions on local businesses and activities in the region after it exceeded an 8 percent positivity rate for more than three days last week.
• Seven days of increased in the region's positivity rate in the past 10
• The rounded rolling average number of new hospital admissions remained at 11 for the second week in a row
• 27 percent of surgical beds, down from 29 percent, and 27 percent of ICU beds, down from 30 percent, remained available at the region's hospitals

Region 8 (Kane, DuPage counties)

• 5.7 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, up by 0.5 points compared to a week earlier
• Positivity rates have increased on six of the previous 10 days
• The average number of people newly admitted to the hospital with symptoms of COVID-19 decreased by one to 11
• 30 percent of surgical beds and 44 percent of ICU beds are available, up from 28 percent of surgical beds and 41 percent of ICU beds last week

Region 9 (Lake, McHenry counties)

• 5.9 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the week
• Three days of increases in the positivity rate
• The average daily number of people hospitalized with coronavirus-like illnesses decreased by one to seven
• 33 percent of surgical beds and 49 percent of ICU beds remained available, a decrease of four points for each.

Region 10 (Suburban Cook County)

• 6.7 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, an increase of 0.2 points over the prior week
• Four days in the past 10 had seen increases in the rate
• New hospital admissions rose to 21 on average, up from 19 the prior week
• 28 percent of surgical beds were available, up by one point from the prior week, while the number of ICU beds remained stable at 33 percent

Region 11 (Chicago)

• 5.5 percent positivity rate on Aug. 25, up by 0.3 points compared to a week earlier
• Five days of positivity rate increases in the past 10 days
• 21 people are being newly hospitalized a day with symptoms of COVID-19 in the city, up by one from the week before and three over the prior fortnight
• 23 percent of surgical beds are available, down from 26 percent a week earlier. ICU bed capacity declined by 2 points to 39 percent.

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