Suburban Cook County Coronavirus Positivity Rate Reaches 6.9%

CHICAGO — Heading into Labor Day weekend, coronavirus positivity rates continued to rise across northern Illinois, according to state public health officials. And while the Illinois Department of Public Health removed suburban Cook County from the list of those that have reached a warning level for increased COVID-19 risk, it added Lake County for the first time.

In the suburban Cook County region, or Region 10, the positivity rate approached 7 percent for the first time since the state health department divided the state into coronavirus resurgence mitigation regions.

According to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health Data through Tuesday, the most recent day where data is available, 6.9 percent of coronavirus tests in the region were coming back positive, up from 6.7 percent the previous week and up from under 5 percent at the start of August.

With families and friends planning gatherings across Illinois over the long weekend, and many schools recently welcoming back students, staff or both, Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked residents to remain mindful about keeping their distance and wearing masks in social settings like picnics, parties and barbecues.

"We know that much of the spread that is occurring in Illinois is happening in these settings," Pritzker said at a new conference Wednesday. "They are not public settings, they are often private settings. And people often let down their guard thinking I'm at home or I'm at someone's home."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.'s top infectious disease expert, warned Illinois' rising positivity rate means the state is at risk for a surge following the holiday weekend. Spikes in new infections were seen after the Memorial Day and July 4 weekend. In an interview earlier this week with Bloomberg, Fauci said "careless" behavior could lead to a similar surge in cases at the unofficial end of summer.

A sustained positivity rate above 8 percent for three or more days is one of two triggers the Pritzker administration has established leading to new measures to slow the spread of the virus in a specific region.

The other is a combination of seven days of increasing positivity rates out of the past 10 combined with seven days of increases to the rounded rolling average of daily new hospital admissions with "COVID-like illnesses," or CLI, or the availability of the region's hospital beds dropping below 20 percent.

Restrictions have been imposed on two regions — Region 4 and Region 7 — due to sustained high positivity rates over the past two weeks.

Region 4, the Metro East area, saw its first decline in positivity in a month as Pritzker shut down indoor dining and limited the size of allowable gatherings to 25, falling sharply from 10.4 percent to 9.3 percent. While the positivity rate in Region 7, which includes Will and Kankakee counties, continued to rise, it did so at a slower rate following the imposition of the restrictions.

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On Friday, state public health officials announced there were 29 counties that had reached a warning level for COVID-19 by breaching two or more risk indicators. Cases connected to schools have begun to be detected, and other cases and outbreaks have been associated with college parties, bars and clubs, weddings and travel to neighboring states, according to an Illinois Department of Public Health announcement.

Boone, Bureau, Clinton, Coles, Cumberland, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Greene, Henry, Jasper, Jefferson, Jersey, Lake, Lawrence, Madison, McLean, Monroe, Pulaski, Randolph, Rock Island, Shelby, Stark, St. Clair, Union, Wabash, Warren, Williamson and Will counties have reached the "orange" warning level, according to county metrics from the IDPH.

RELATED: Lake County Hits 'Warning' Level For COVID-19 Risk

As of Thursday night, there were 1,621 people in Illinois in the hospital with reported cases of COVID-19, and increase of 75 over the past week, according to the health department. There were 360 people in intensive care units, eight more than last week, and 155 people on ventilators, 23 people more than a week earlier.

There have been 8,143 deaths in Illinois since the start of the pandemic as of Friday, according to public health officials.

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In suburban Cook County, the rounded rolling average number of new hospitalizations increased to 22 people a day in the most recent data available, an increase of three people newly admitted to hospitals with symptoms of the virus.

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

Region 1 (Rockford EMS region)

• 6.3 percent coronavirus positivity on Sept. 1, up from 5.1 percent over the past week
• Five days of increasing positivity rates out of the past 10 days
• The rounded rolling average is five new hospital admissions with "COVID-like illnesses" a day, up from three in each of the past two weeks
• 41 percent of surgical beds and 49 percent of ICU beds are available, compared to 43 percent of surgical beds and 52 percent of ICU beds a week earlier

Region 2 (Peoria EMS region)

• 7.4 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, up by a full percentage point compared to last week
• Positivity rates have risen on five of the past 10 days
• Nine people, on average, are being admitted to hospitals in the region with symptoms of COVID-19, up from eight during each of the previous two weeks
• 40 percent of surgical beds and ICU beds are available. Last week, 38 percent of surgical beds and 43 percent of ICU beds were available in the region

Region 3 (Springfield EMS region)

• 4.7 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, down from 5.7 percent a week earlier
• One day of a positivity rate increase followed by nine days of declines
• The average number of new hospital admissions remained at five for the fourth straight week
• 35 percent of surgical beds are available, the same as last week, and 35 percent of ICU beds are available in the region, down one point from a week earlier

Region 4 (Edwardsville EMS region)

• 9.3 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, down from 10.4 percent a week earlier and its first decline in a month. Gov. J.B. Pritzker imposed additional restrictions on the Metro East region in response to its high coronavirus positivity rates
• Three days of positivity increases followed by three days of declines
• Five new daily hospital admissions with COVID-19 symptoms, down from six the previous week
• 31 percent of surgical beds and 49 percent of ICU beds are available, up from 29 percent and 37 percent, respectively, a week earlier.

Region 5 (Marion EMS region)

• 6.4 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, down by 1.2 percentage points compared to a week earlier
• Four days of positivity increases and five days of declines in the past 10
• Three new average daily hospital admissions, the same as a week earlier
• 49 percent of surgical beds are available, up 3 points from the prior week, and 49 percent of ICU beds are available, down 6 points from a week earlier

Region 6 (Champaign EMS region)

• 1.9 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, an increase of 0.2 percentage points. It remains the region with the lowest coronavirus positivity rate in the state.
• The positivity rate increased on four days during the past 10
• Eight people a day, on average, are being admitted to the region's hospitals with symptoms of the virus, up from five a week earlier
• 34 percent of surgical beds and 47 percent of ICU beds are available, an increase of 4 points in ICU beds over the past week

Region 7 (Will, Kankakee counties)

• 8.7 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, up by 0.3 percentage points compared to the prior week. New restrictions were imposed on the region last week after the rate remained above 8 percent for more then three days in a row.
• Three days of increases in the positivity rate out of the past 10
• The rounded rolling average of the number of people newly admitted to hospitals with symptoms of COVID-19 remained at 11 for the third consecutive week, despite rising on four days of the past 10.
• 29 percent of surgical beds and 30 percent of ICU beds were available at hospitals in the region, up from 27 percent of both last week

Region 8 (Kane, DuPage counties)

• 6.1 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, up from 5.7 percent a week earlier
• Four days of positivity increases out of the past 10 days
• The average number of new hospital admissions fell for the second week in a row to 10
• 31 percent of surgical beds and 45 percent of ICU beds are available, both are up 1 percentage point compared to a week earlier

Region 9 (Lake, McHenry counties)

• 6.1 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, an increase of 0.2 percentage points for the second consecutive week. State public health officials added Lake County to its list of those that have reached a warning level for a surge of cases.
• The region has seen four days of increases to its positivity rate out of the past 10
• An average of nine people were admitted to hospitals in the region every day, up from seven a week earlier
• 38 percent of surgical beds were still available, up from 33 percent, and 50 percent of ICU beds were also available, compared to 49 percent last week

Region 10 (Suburban Cook County)

• 6.9 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous week for a second week in a row. State public health officials removed Cook County from the list of those that have reached a warning level for the virus.
• Positivity rates increased on three of the previous 10 days.
• 22 people were admitted to the region's hospitals every day, on average, with symptoms of COVID-19, an increase of one in the past week and three in the past two weeks.
• 27 percent of surgical beds were available, down one point from last week, and 34 percent of ICU beds were available, up 1 point from a week earlier

Region 11 (Chicago)

• 5.6 percent positivity rate on Sept. 1, up by 0.1 percentage points over the prior week
• Three days of positivity rate increases in the past 10 days
• An average of 20 people were newly admitted to the city's hospital's with COVID-19 symptoms, down by one from a week earlier
• 26 percent of surgical beds were available, up from 23 percent, while ICU bed availability declined by 1 point to 38, having fallen from 41 percent during the prior two weeks